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With the Guinness Jonah Jones Sevens just over a week away, many teams’ preparations for the famous and historical Malaysian tournament are well underway. None more so than the Royal Selangor Club, who will host the tournament.

Their preparations have been going so well that several junior players in the RSC Colts side are in the running to make the senior squad for the clubs’ category competition at the upcoming tournament at the RSC ground in Bukit Kiara on August 15 and 16.

RSC Colts coach Benjamin Tok said they had identified the potential youngsters from a pool of 16 trainees aged 21-years-old and below to step up to the challenge of beating such teams as the Borneo Eagles.

It will not be the first time RSC have successfully used colt players in the senior side either, with five players recently earning places at the Negri Sembilan Sevens tournament, including Amril Muzamir, Simon Fox, Steve Wade and Luke Davey.

“They have performed well combining with the established players in the senior team. But, they still have to show their maturity and prove that they deserve to be in the senior team,” said Tok.

“Considering there will be less physical contact in sevens, we require intelligent players with better flair and control of the ball to keep the play alive. They also need to be vocal on the field to communicate with their team-mates.”

The club has been putting all their players, colt and senior, through their paces with two training sessions and a pool workout out every week. They also fielded a side to take part in the Taiping 10s and the Putrajaya Sevens as part of their buildup.

The coaching panel, which comprises national coach Deano Herewini from New Zealand, former Dutch coach Ross Mills, Micheal Lai and Tok, will deliberate on the 12-man squads for the senior and junior sides before announcing them next week.

Inaugural women’s division

There is also the newly introduced women’s section taking place at the Guinness Jonah Jones Sevens, with the RSC Dingo’s expected to be up against three visiting sides.

Based on advancing to the semi-finals of the bowl section in their debut at the Asian women’s sevens tournament at Pattaya in May RSC's rugby chief, Richard Dutton, hinted that the local hopefuls will rise to the occasion, with teams from Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Laos potential opponents.

Fly half Normasyirah Zahari, renowned for pulling off her forceful tackles, said they were excited to gauge their strength against other teams again.

“It felt good when we sprang a few surprises to match the more superior teams in our first tournament in Thailand.

“We are delighted with our progress in adapting to the speedy pace in the sevens,” she added.