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Wales 7s Review

Dai Rees' Wales Sevens team ended the IRB Sevens season in sixth position overall after reaching the last four in Scotland and London.

Kath McCarthy | 04/06/2007

Dai Rees' Wales Sevens team ended the IRB Sevens season in sixth position overall after reaching the last four in Scotland and London.

Wales beat Fiji 21-14 in the cup quarter- finals at Murrayfield on the weekend to mirror their achievements at Twickenham land reached the semi-finals of the main competition, climbing two places up the IRB Sevens rankings in the process.

Jonathan Edwards' side ended Fiji's hopes of holding onto their world series title for another year in a shock win which included tries for Rhodri McAtee, Dragons player Aled Thomas and Tal Selley while Aled Thomas also slotted three conversions and finished the tournament as top points scorer.

A tired Wales later ended their tournament with a 28-0 defeat to eventual winners New Zealand but coach Rees is convinced Wales can go from strength to strength and regularly reach the knock-out stages of the cup.

"The team has done Wales proud this weekend and last. We are the only team outside of the IRB's core Sevens teams to finish the season ranked within the top eight - and we finished sixth which is an incredible achievement.

"We set out to reach the last eight three times this season but we have done that and a lot more with two semi-final places in these last two competitions.

"I was disappointed with the scoreline in the semi-final, but not the application. We broke New Zealand on a number of occasions but weren't able to score. Nevertheless, the boys will have learned a lot from the experience.

"Our top four finishes mean we will be seeded top of our pool for the first two tournaments of next season in Dubai and George.

"The results are testament to the environment that has been created by our team management - the likes of Dai Jenkins the team manager, Gareth Baber, assistant coach and Huw Wiltshire, our fitness coach - and the boys themselves have put their heart and soul into these tournaments."

On day one of the Scotland tournament, Wales defeated France 28-12 and Italy 43-0 to make it through to the quarters after a 21-14 loss to Samoa.

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