• • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • Stumble Upon
  • Furl

Winning the Bowl is becoming a bit of a habit for Paul John and his Sevens World champions Wales.

Following a repeat of the World Cup final in the semi final against Argentina, Wales defeated France 7-5 in the final in Wellington to win their third successive Bowl trophy on this year’s IRB Sevens World Series.

The title added to the previous titles they won in Dubai and George where they beat Zimbabwe 38-7 and Russia 14-5 respectively, and not many people would bet against them making it four in a row when Las Vegas makes its debut this weekend.

However let it be said that Paul John and his young Welsh side will be going all out to reach their first Cup quarter final this season.

Whilst it might seem unlikely that Wales could make an impact on the big guns of Fiji, New Zealand and England, at 80-1 outsiders it seemed unlikely that they would win the RWC Sevens in Dubai last year.

Their head coach, however, is aware that his side may need to participate in more Sevens when the circuit takes its breaks to reach their potential and make Cup quarter finals as regular as Bowl trophies by the end of the season.

“I think a lot of the boys were getting used to it again,” said Paul John after the final against France. “It was our first Sevens tournament since George.”

“A lot of the teams in and around us and above us have played two or three tournaments and it is clear that we need to if we want to compete at the top.”

Fiji participated in the Suva Rugby Festival, and we all know about their performance in Wellington, but having had time to gel, perhaps this weekend will be the first time for Wales to break into the Cup quarter finals – and Canada showed how with one big match this can be achieved.

“It takes us a day to get in to it, and once we were in to it we played better again and the boys started to relax and play a little bit, and also play some flavoursome and sensible Sevens.

"We are building again this year, but slowly doing it. I am pleased with the Bowl in the end but now we must look to improve in Las Vegas,” added John.

Wales are pooled with England, Argentina and Japan in Pool D.