After being pipped at the post by Fiji in an enthralling final in Hong Kong last Sunday, Wales would be considered strong favourites to reach the knock out stages again in the Japanese round as they have been drawn with Kenya, USA and Scotland.
Paul John’s side swept aside the Africans in Hong Kong en route to the final while both USA and Scotland find themselves at the wrong end of the points table where a real dogfight sees six sides all in danger of automatic relegation from the world series.
At the final round of the HSBC Sevens World Series, the Marriott London Sevens in May, the three lowest-ranked of the current 15 core teams will have to play off for the three available core team places on the 2013/14 Series against Asian champions Hong Kong and the four teams who battled through pre-qualifying last weekend: Zimbabwe, Russia, Tonga and Georgia.
It is a scenario that every team wants to avoid, including Australia, who line up as defending champions in Tokyo but are currently only 12 points above Portugal in 13th place, and need every point they can get in Japan and Scotland over the next two rounds.
Due to torrential rain this week in Tokyo the Welsh squad have had a relatively quiet week so far.
“We’ve been looking to recharge the batteries after the weekend,” said Wales Sevens head coach Paul John.
“We trained yesterday and today and starting on Saturday we begin with a game against USA. The boys are looking forward to it but we are taking nothing for granted as we have a tricky group with Kenya – who are currently fifth – Scotland who beat us last time out in Las Vegas and USA, who have played some strong tournaments this year.
“Both USA and Scotland are really in need of some points this weekend so they will be going flat out to try and climb the table but we will be concentrating on our own game. It is important that we look to back up the performance of last weekend.
“We are currently sixth in the points table having grabbed 19 points for finishing as runners-up last weekend so it is important to keep the momentum going.”
