Three Dragons players will be involved in the Wales 7s team that will compete in the Rugby 7s competition at the Commonwealth Games, Melbourne in March.
The Welsh squad have been drawn against New Zealand, Kenya and Namibia in the Pool Stages of the tournament.
Dragons skills coach Dai Rees is national sevens coach while Dragons scrum half Gareth Baber travels Down Under as assistant coach.
Also named in the playing squad is flanker Jamie Ringer and wing Gareth Wyatt, both have numerous experience of playing international sevens.
Speaking at the squad announcement, Gareth Baber commented,
“I gained plenty of valuable sevens experience during a number of years as a player and now I am looking forward to the new challenge of being involved with the Wales squad as assistant coach. I played with Jamie and Gareth and, going into a tournament like the Commonwealth Games, your need that sort of experience to manage the separate environment of sevens because it can be intimidating for younger players. But while players like Jamie, Gareth and Rhys (Williams) are players who have been there and done it and know what is expected of them I could not believe how quickly the players gelled as a team in Dubai and how youngsters like James Hook, Wayne Evans and Rhodri McAtee stood up and did as well as other far more experienced players and made names for themselves.
"In the recent Dubai and George tournaments we did really well so, while not setting our sights too high, I am confident we can compete with the top teams and I would love to see us in a position of having qualified for the quarter-finals and pushing for a place in the semis. However, we are under no illusions on how difficult it is going to be.”
The competition takes place in Melbourne's Telstra Dome on March 16-17 and the newly-reformed Welsh Sevens set-up has been pitched into Pool A with New Zealand - the defending Commonwealth champions who won their sixth IRB Sevens title last season. Kenya and Namibia make up the remaining spaces in the pool.
"New Zealand always have a strong sevens squad and we most certainly will not be under-estimating Kenya and Namibia. They regularly play in world-class tournaments and will be tough to beat - we are going to have to battle hard to get a quarter-final spot," Baber added.
“In the recent Dubai and George tournaments we did really well so, while not setting our sights to high, I am confident we can compete with the top teams and I would love to see us in a position of having qualified for the quarter-finals and pushing for a place in the semis. However, we are under no illusions on how difficult it is going to be.”
