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Australia star Luke Morahan is relishing his return to rugby sevens as his side steps up their preparations for the Commonwealth Games with a warm-up at this weekend’s Oceania Sevens Championships.

Australia are one of eight nations competing at Darwin’s Austar Park with their major threat expected to come from 2009/10 IRB Sevens World Series champions Samoa.

Morahan starred for the Aussies in the 08/09 sevens campaign and has since gone onto join the Queensland Reds, whilst also winning a place on the Wallabies Northern Hemisphere tour at the end of last year. He is joined by fellow Aussie flyer Lachie Turner who was recently in action in the Tri-Nations.

“A few of us are getting back into Sevens and hopefully we’ll find form pretty quickly and be ready to take on Samoa on Saturday in the finals,” said Morahan

“Putting in a good performance this weekend will definitely serve us well in Delhi.”

Joining Australia and Samoa this weekend are Tonga, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Niue and Tahiti.

“Samoa are the World Series champions and they’re pretty tough to beat. They’ve got a lot of all rounders and are a pretty experienced team which boasts the likes of Mikaele Pesamino (IRB Sevens Player of the Year),” added Morahan.

“Back when I played Sevens last year, we never beat them and this year the boys came close, but didn’t get away with a win.

“A few of us are getting back into Sevens and hopefully we’ll find form pretty quickly and be ready to take on Samoa on Saturday in the finals.

Key men return

Coach Michael O’Connor has named an experienced 12-man squad for this weekend’s event which includes four members of this year’s London Sevens winning team in Jesse Parahi, Ed Jenkins, James Stannard and Nic Phipps.

Former Australian Schoolboys star Jason Seage, 18, will make his Australian Sevens debut while U20s representatives Kimami Sitauti, Liam Gill and Robbie Coleman return to the mix after missing the back end of the IRB Series to compete at the Junior World Championships in Argentina.

The Australian squad has a chance to create history if they can finish with gold or silver at the Commonwealth Games as Australia has not medalled since securing bronze in 1998 when Rugby Sevens was first granted entry in Kuala Lumpur.

Australia squad for Oceania Sevens Championships : Patrick McCutcheon (capt), Jesse Parahi, Ed Jenkins, Luke Morahan, Kimami Sitauti, Jason Seage, Liam Gill, Robbie Coleman, Nic Phipps, James Stannard, Shaun Foley, Lachie Turner.

2010 Oceania Sevens Championships Pools:

POOL A: Samoa, PNG, Nieu, Tahiti

POOL B: Australiam Tonga, Cook Islands, Vanuatu