In the Canada leg of the world series, Wales showed grit and determination to beat Japan and Spain and only just failed to make it three in a row, by falling narrowly to Ireland 14-12. Despite Wales facing France, Fiji and Kenya in Pool B in this week’s Toulouse leg, Pugh is hopeful his team can stamp their mark on the tournament.
“We’ve just got to keep challenging ourselves to get better,” he said.
“I’ve said it before, we had minimal prep time to go to Malaga and Seville and what we achieved in those tournaments we were really pleased with. We made big improvements after a longer prep leading into Singapore and Vancouver – we were very competitive against the best teams.
“Probably what we didn’t do was kind of back it up really – we did fall off against New Zealand after putting in a good performance against Argentina so that’s the challenge.
“Every game we’ve got to be competitive and every minute within those games we’ve got to be competitive because if you switch off for two minutes you’re punished against the best teams and ultimately that’s what happened against New Zealand.”
While the likes of experienced trio Luke Treharne, Morgan Williams and Tom Williams have been producing consistent performances in trying times, Pugh has been impressed with some of the younger brigade coming through who are now making their mark.
Iwan Pyrs Jones in training at the National Centre of Excellence
Cole Swannack, Callum Williams and Iwan Prys Jones have all stepped up to the mark and shown they can match it with the best players in the world on a demanding circuit.
“What’s been brilliant about these boys who play on the Invitational circuit, they may not be household names in terms of 15s but even though someone like Cole is making himself well known for Pontypridd this year, he’s grafted on the invitation circuit, and he’s come in and slotted in and he’s growing in confidence. It is great to see those boys are up there because there’s lots of players like that out there and we’ve just got to make sure we keep tapping into those sources.
“There are boys who made huge strides in Vancouver – someone who is exciting me at the moment is Callum Williams.
“I think he’s someone who came in for the last legs off the back of probably a lot of time out of the game 15s-wise with Scarlets and Llandovery but you can see that he’s just grown in confidence. He’s knows his job, what part he can play within the team and it’s just exciting to see him go.
“I’m also excited to see if Iwan Prys Jones can back up his performances in Vancouver. I know he had obviously the highlights reel in Singapore but in Vancouver he was defending excellently, he was a threat on the ball and he really grew as a mainstay of the team.”
Wales 7s squad for Toulouse
May 20-22
Luke Treharne (Wales 7s)
Tyler Morgan (Scarlets)
Morgan Sieniawski (Wales 7s)
Arfon Bagshaw (RGC)
Tom Brown (Wales 7s)
Callum Williams (Scarlets)
Owen Jenkins (Dragons)
Tom Williams (Wales 7s)
Morgan Williams (Wales 7s)
Iwan Pyrs Jones (Cardiff)
Lloyd Lewis (Wales 7s)
Ewan Rosser (Dragons)
Cole Swannack (Pontypridd)
Toulouse Sevens – Pool A
Friday May 20
France v Wales KO 1412 (UK time)
Fiji v Wales KO 2133 (UK time)
Saturday May 21
Kenya v Wales KO 1312 (UK time)
