Wales have named the squad that will travel to the New Zealand and Australia legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series, starting this weekend in Hamilton (25-26 Jan) – and include three Dragons in the set-up.
An eight-man core group is complemented by five players with Guinness Pro14 and Principality Premiership experience.
In addition to a return for Dragons' James Benjamin - who was part of Team Wales Sevens at the 2018 Commonwealth Games - and a fit-again Joe Goodchild, regional teammate James McCarthy is in line for his World Series debut.
Former Wales U18 and Ireland U20 wing McCarthy recently spent a season with Munster before returning to his home region, and has previous sevens experience, having claimed the U18 Rugby Europe Championship with Ireland in 2017.
Pontypridd's Morgan Sieniawski is back after some good showings in Dubai and Cape Town, as is Swansea University's Brandon Wood.
Playmaker Will Thomas first featured for Wales Sevens in 2012, and is a former member of the Cardiff Blues Academy where he combined rugby with his studies at Cardiff Met.
Ben Roach, who was part of the set-up at Dragons during the Celtic Cup earlier this season, is named captain for the Hamilton tournament. The 26-year-old forward is fast approaching his 40th tournament with Wales.
For the third tournament in a row, Wales will face number one-ranked New Zealand first up. That game will take place on Saturday at 01:31 GMT, followed by Scotland (07:05), before Wales take on USA on Sunday (00:19).
Wales Sevens: Dragons: James Benjamin, Joe Goodchild, James McCarthy Pontypridd: Morgan Sieniawski Swansea University: Brandon Wood Core Players: Luke Treharne (c - Sydney), Cameron Lewis, Jay Jones, Dafydd Smith, Cai Devine, Will Thomas, George Gasson, Ben Roach (c - Hamilton).
