Head coach Richie Pugh has confirmed his 12-man Wales squad for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town, getting underway this Friday.
Wales finished a disappointing 15th in this year’s World Rugby Sevens series, and will have to play Korea in the preliminary round on Friday, and if successful will enter the second round where they will face Fiji on Saturday.
With the straight knockout structure coming in from the very first round, Pugh was adamant that the Korean match would be the priority before progressing to face the champions of both Olympic Games events where sevens has been held.
“It is a completely different format,” explained Pugh.
“We’ve drawn Korea – they are a team that have been performing well on the Asian Games. They sent a younger squad to the qualifier last month, so we didn’t learn much from them there.
“Fortunately we have got people like Paul John with Hong Kong, giving us the low down on them. We don’t know much about them but the footage we have got shows they pose a lot of threats across the park, so we have to focus on them first before even thinking about Fiji.”
Wales will enter the World Cup buoyed by a rare victory against South Africa in the last tournament on this year’s world series in Los Angeles as they recorded a narrow 10-5 victory, just the third in history between the two sides.
The Experienced Luke Treharne captains the side, having played in 60 tournaments for Wales and seven representing Great Britain.
Pugh, who was part of the victorious Welsh side who shocked the world to win the title in 2009, admits it could be an emotional rollercoaster as Wales, along with England and Scotland, will form part of a combined Great Britain side from next season.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge ahead, but it’s going to be an emotional one,” he added.
“Wales in the World Cup, on the big stage, it’s going to the last time we see Wales on the biggest stage for at least three or four years and we want to do ourselves proud.
“We’ve got a history in this game where we are only one of four teams that have won the men’s sevens World Cup and it is special to have the Melrose Cup on our sleeves.
“So we want to do our history proud and we want to go out and represent our country to the top of our ability and we’re excited to do that for what could be the last time in a while.
“It’s all about the boys enjoying the experience, that’s what we did in 2009, we embraced it and were confident in what we did and it brought out the best in us and I just want the boys to get the best out of themselves by expressing themselves.”
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