Wales overcame a 54-5 loss to New Zealand on day one of the Sydney Sevens to bounce back in electric fashion against Kenya, scoring two tries in the final two minutes of play to secure a much-needed 26-21 victory.
Dragons’ Joe Goodchild had been Wales’ sole try-scorer in the opening fixture against the series leaders, but four different players touched down against the Shujaa: Will Thomas, Luke Treharne, Will Jones (in only his second game of sevens), and Ben Roach.
Unable to carry that momentum into day two, Wales lost 55-0 to another heavyweight of the game in Fiji.
Goodchild managed to get himself on the scoreboard once again over the course of the tournament, this time against Scotland – although it was Ciaran Beattie’s men who won the game, 21-5.
Wales will take heart from their manner of victory against Kenya, whilst there was a notable achievement for Dafydd Smith. He topped the DHL Impact Player on the first day of competition, leading the way with his all-round game.
Smith said: “I thought there were some real positives to take from the weekend. Our goal is to close the performance gap between us and the other teams and I felt we put together some good performances throughout the weekend to come away with our highest finish so far this season.
“The challenge for us moving forward is getting that consistency in our performance against every team. We’re definitely growing as a group each week we’re together and hopefully we can continue to improve and get that consistency we’re looking for in the next couple tournaments.”
Darren Edwards’s squad will now regroup before the action moves to Los Angeles in 26 days’ time.