Cardiff Blues’ Williams and Ospreys’ Cory Allen – with 28 and six senior Wales caps respectively – are both named in Gareth Williams’s squad for London Sevens, as are Dragons’ Jared Rosser and Jason Harries, who spent last season with Edinburgh. All four impressed on the sevens circuit early in their careers.
“It’s an exciting group with some experienced players returning to the fold,” said head coach Williams. “We want to finish the last two World Series events as strongly as possible, starting in London this week.”
The quartet will be joining a core group of sevens players – including Adam Thomas, Luke Treharne, Owen Jenkins and Wales Sevens’ record points-scorer Luke Morgan – as well as up-and-comers Cai Devine and Joe Jenkins. It will also be one of the final tournaments for Tom Williams, who returns to Ospreys on a full-time basis next season.
“We are disappointed with our points haul to date, and want to finish strongly to complement the number of new caps and young players we’ve developed this year,” said Williams. “This will put us in good stead longer term, but the next few weeks are about the here and now and we want to excel in our ‘home’ tournaments.”
RGC’s Afon Bagshaw, who captained a youthful Wales side to victory in Moscow a fortnight ago, is named in the side. Lloyd Evans makes a timely return from injury to take his place in the squad that will travel to Twickenham, along with former Wales U20 fullback Will Talbot-Davies.
Wales will finish the 2017/18 World Rugby Sevens Series in Paris on 9th-10th June, before flying to San Francisco for the Sevens Rugby World Cup (July 20th-22nd).
London Sevens – Pool B: Wales, Australia, Spain, Ireland.
Wales Sevens Squad: Adam Thomas, Afon Bagshaw, Joe Jenkins, Cai Devine, Jason Harries, Lloyd Evans, Luke Treharne, Owen Jenkins, Lloyd Williams, Tom Williams, Will Talbot-Davies, Jared Rosser, Luke Morgan, Cory Allen.
