Baber's dozen look for Sevens success
Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:09
Wales head coach Gareth Baber has named a strong squad for the Hong Kong and Adelaide legs of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens World Series.
Wales leave for Hong Kong at the weekend, where they take on Zimbabwe, Korea and Fiji in their pool in a bid to reach the last eight of the Cup competition.
The Hong Kong tournament takes place on March 28 to 30 and the Adelaide event a week later.
Captain Johnathan Edwards has recovered from a hamstring injury in time to make the trip and will be joined by experienced Sevens players Richie Pugh, Lee Beech, James Merriman, Lee Williams and Aled Brew.
Baber has named 13 players in the travelling party, including up and coming Sevens players James Harris, Alec Jenkins, along with twins Rob and James Lewis, while Lewis Evans, who travelled to Wellington and San Diego but was unable to play due to injury, is set to make his Wales Sevens debut.
Blues centre Tom Riley will also make his international Sevens debut, while Wales Under-20 and Ospreys centre Gareth Owen returns to the Sevens circuit after featuring at the Dubai and George events earlier this season.
"We have an experienced squad of players, while our development players such as James Harris, James and Robert Lewis and Alec Jenkins have a number of tournaments under their belts now and are becoming very good Sevens players in their own right," Baber said.
"Hong Kong is a large tournament of 24 teams so while we will benefit from playing our three Pool games over two days, we have to either win our group or finish as one of the two best second-placed sides to progress to Day Three of the Cup competition.
"That is our aim - to finish in the top eight in both Hong Kong and Adelaide but we have to improve on our last tournaments if we are to achieve that goal."
Wales: Johnathan Edwards (captain, Scarlets), Richie Pugh (Cardiff), James Merriman (Neath), James Harris (Dragons), Lee Beech (Neath), Tom Riley (Blues), Lee Williams (Llanelli), Robert Lewis (Dragons), James Lewis (Dragons), Aled Brew (Ospreys), Alec Jenkins (Scarlets), Gareth Owen (Ospreys).
