Paul John’s world champion side kick off the new campaign against defending world series champions South Africa and the fast improving Australians along with the Arabian Gulf.
Wales coach Paul John said: “We have a tough pool for the opening leg of the IRB Series, with IRB Series champions South Africa, and a side we struggled against throughout last season in Australia.
“We had some close encounters against them, only once losing by more than a score, but failed to get the better of them. It will certainly be a tough challenge to kick off the season. However, with only four Pools in the Dubai tournament, there are no easy groups.
“We are really looking forward to the start of the new Sevens season. We have held Sevens training for the past three weeks and we are holding a training match against England on Thursday of this week which will be a great extension to our training programme.”
South Africa start as the top seeds in an ultra-competitive international draw, which features 16 nations from five different continents.
Fiji line up as second seeds in Pool B and face the team that beat them to take Gold at the recent Mini Pacific Games, Samoa, as well as Namibia Sevens finalists Zimbabwe and Scotland.
England, who finished third in last year’s overall standings, top Pool C and face tough games against sixth-ranked Kenya, USA and Russia, while eight-time World Series winners New Zealand start as fourth seeds and face three competitive matches in Pool D against the Pumas of Argentina and the dual European challenge of France and Portugal.
This year for the first time, women’s rugby took centre stage alongside the men’s game at the Rugby World Cup Sevens and, following on from that success, a strong international field has entered the women’s tournament in Dubai.
The national sides from Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Spain, USA, Russia and Georgia will all do battle for the Dubai title.
“The IRB Sevens World Series continues to go from strength to strength, attracting record levels of travelling fans and broadcast coverage each year and the popular Dubai event has been a major factor in that success,” said IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset.
“At a time when Sevens is reaching out for Olympic Games inclusion, the interest in the Series has never been higher thanks to the performances of Kenya, Argentina, USA and Russia in recent years. The Series truly is a global festival of world class Rugby.”
