Old hands return to Aussie Sevens team for Wellington and San Diego
Old hands return to Aussie Sevens team for Wellington and San Diego
January 24, 2007 - 11:09am
Story by: ARU
The Australian Rugby Union today named its 12-man squad ahead of the upcoming Wellington and San Diego Sevens in the 2006-07 IRB Sevens World Series.
Australian coach Glen Ella has made a number of changes to the squad that competed in the first two rounds in Dubai and South Africa, including the selection of experienced duo Josh Gamgee and Luke Milton.
Gamgee, a member of the star-studded Australian 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games team will be making his sixteenth appearance in international Sevens rugby in Wellington, while Milton played in all eight IRB Sevens tournaments last year.
Only five -Tim Atkinson, Nick Cummins, Tim Cornforth, Corey Niwa and Andy Rasmus - of the original squad selected for the Dubai and George tournaments have been reselected to wear the gold jersey in Wellington.
Among the new faces are Elia Tuqiri, cousin of Qantas Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri, and former Australian Schoolboy Luke Johnson.
Thomas Couper is also in the squad for the first time and will be keen to emulate his brother, James, who captained Australia in Sevens in 2002 while another interesting character is David Harvey, who is the grandson of cricket legend Neil Harvey and cousin of St Kilda AFL player Robert Harvey.
Another debutant Blair Connor will also be keen to perform well and enhance his chances of being selected in the Ford Australian U19 squad for the World Championships in Belfast in April.
Coach Glen Ella said that the inclusion of Gamgee and Milton will give a young squad some much needed experience in international Sevens rugby.
“Josh Gamgee is in his third year of Sevens and he will give us some stability up front, while Luke Milton was a very solid performer in all the tournaments last season,” he said.
“We're in a better position now than at the start of the series as the majority of the squad have now experienced the speed and skill level of this version of the game and are better for it.”
“We made the quarter-finals at both tournaments last year and we'll be looking to go at least one better this time around.”
The team assembles in Sydney on Saturday and will fly out for Wellington on Monday.
Squad, Schedule and Standings here: http://www.rugby.com.au/news/old_han.../section/21893
