Without two-thirds of their frontline players in Hong Kong – an advance party was already in Australia to begin Commonwealth Games preparations – Wales were then made to do without the experience of Treharne, their captain for the tournament, and an injured Lloyd Evans for the majority of the weekend.
“I played on Friday and felt completely fine,” says Treharne, “then went to bed, and about 10pm I started to feel ill and was confined to the bathroom until 6am. So I slept all of Saturday, then managed two halves and two minutes of sevens on Sunday. It was a bit of a nightmare because I was really looking forward to getting back out there, especially after missing Las Vegas through injury.”
It was a tournament of ups and downs for Gareth Williams’s young side, but they rallied together to recover from pool losses to Argentina and USA in order to beat France. A 17-5 loss to Russia in the Challenge Trophy quarter-final saw the head coach rue an “unacceptable” amount of wasted opportunities, but they were able to bounce back and defeat the Samoans – who had earlier beaten England 33-10 – in the Shield Final by 33-5.
“Overall, I think we played some really good rugby, but the quarter-final against Russia was a missed opportunity,” Treharne says, with the Russians closing the gap with Wales in the World Rugby Sevens Series table.
“It was a learning curve for the youngsters and even the boys who’ve been around for many years. We’ve lost that first match on day two quite a few times, but it could have more of an impact than it’s had in previous seasons because we’re now at the wrong end of the table.”
Nevertheless, he sings the praises of the younger elements of the squad. “Cai Devine stood out for me, especially in that last game against Samoa where he dominated the aerial ball, and Tomi Lewis had a really good tournament,” he says. “Across the board, every time the boys had the chance to attack or take someone on they took it. Daf Smith and Harri Millard were excellent. Afon Baghsaw did a lot of unsung work, as well as scoring four tries: his tackle count was hefty, smashing people, winning turnovers and working back.”
One rookie who performed just as well off the field as on it was Aberavon’s Jacob Flynn, who led the Wales team in singing a hearty rendition of Calon Lân at the annual St David’s Society function in Hong Kong.
Treharne, Ethan Davies, Morgan Williams and Tom Williams, along with travelling reserves Tomi Lewis and Harri Millard, landed on the Gold Coast at 9am today from Hong Kong. Training begins tomorrow with a game of touch rugby against England that will help blow away any lingering jet lag.
The newly qualified doctor says he’s impressed by what he’s seen so far of the athletes’ village on the Gold Coast. “It’s really cool, bright and colourful,” says Treharne. “All the countries’ flags are flying everywhere, and with all different shapes and sizes of people walking around it’s quite fun trying to guess what sport they participate in.”
Should all go to plan for Team Wales against Sri Lanka and Uganda this weekend, they will be treating their final pool match against Fiji – winners in Hong Kong last weekend – as a quarter-final. “Only the top team goes through from their group in the Commonwealth Games,” Treharne explains. “It’s a great prospect. They were red-hot in Hong Kong, but we’re more than looking forward to taking on that challenge.”
Team Wales – Men’s Sevens: Luke Treharne, Morgan Williams, Angus O’Brien, Luke Morgan, Owen Jenkins, Tom Williams, Ethan Davies, James Benjamin, Adam Thomas (C), Justin Tipuric, Hallam Amos, Benjamin Roach
Travelling Reserves: Tomi Lews, Harri Millard
