Lewis Jones has said his team will not be daunted by facing four-time defending champions New Zealand first up in their opening pool game of the Marriott London Sevens, the ninth and final round of the HSBC Sevens World Series.
Wales have been notoriously slow starters in recent times on the world circuit but the Cardiff Blues scrum half, who made his international debut last week in Glasgow, said: “We’ve just got to go out there and give it everything against New Zealand.
“Hopefully we can go out there and right a few wrongs from last week in Scotland where we started quite slowly against Fiji. We improved against Scotland in the second pool game but lost concentration for a split second to lose the game in the dying moments but we regrouped and beat Portugal quite comfortably.
“The boys who have been in the squad most of the campaign said last weekend was the first silverware they’ve picked up all season so it’s good to be going into this weekend with a positive frame of mind.
“Personally, I really enjoyed the experience in Glasgow. It was the highest level I’ve ever played and it was a huge step up from clubs sevens to international sevens. Playing at this level, there is more to it than meets the eye.
“The late loss against Scotland proves the point. Two minutes is a long time in sevens. You have to stay switched on for the entire 14 minutes if you want to win against the big nations. It was pleasing to put away Portugal in the manner we did to finish off the pool last week as Portugal have beaten some good sides this season.”
Jones has quickly developed a smooth partnership with Angus O’Brien with Jones impressed with the young fly half’s ability.
“I’ve been really impressed with Angus. I didn’t really know a lot about him before meeting up in the sevens. But when Dan Fish got injured Angus stepped up on day two and pulled the strings to his credit,” he said.
“It also helps when you have guys like Luke Morgan and Kristian Phillips out wide. There is no substitute for speed on the sevens circuit and Luke and Kristian have bags of it so it’s nice to know if we can get the ball to them they can finish off from distance.
“We’ve got a tough pool but once we get over the hurdle of New Zealand that leaves Australia and Japan – two tough sides but we are determined to reach the Cup competition for Sunday.”
