John changes Wales for Dubai
Wales coach Paul John has made three changes to his squad for the second and third rounds of the IRB Sevens World Series – in Dubai (November 29 and 30) and South Africa (December 7 and 8).
Jason Harries and Luke Morgan have been recalled to the squad, while Bridgend's Ashley Evans is given his first opportunity at this level.
Will Thomas, Alex Webber and Iolo Evans dropped out from the squad due to injury concerns.
"Will broke his jaw [in Round One] at the Gold Coast so he's out for a few more weeks yet, so Ashley Evans has come in to replace him," said John.
"Alex Webber is out probably up until Christmas so Luke Morgan, who has been part of the extended squad, and who has been training really well, deserves his chance while Jason Harries comes back in for Iolo, who has a broken hand.
"Jason was unlucky to miss out on the Gold Coast, but it shows how competitive the squad is at the moment. He deserves to be there, he is capable of performing really well.
"Luke played for us last year in Wellington and to be fair to Luke he has worked really hard on his game. He is an exciting prospect and he is someone on an upward spiral and hopefully he will do himself justice over the next couple of weeks.
"Ashley has been training with the squad and put his hand up for selection and deserves his opportunity. We are under no illusions as to how tough it is going to be in Dubai before we head off to Port Elizabeth."
Wales have drawn Australia, Spain and Scotland for the pool stage of Dubai and despite finishing above all three in last year's series, John is taking nothing for granted.
"We haven't beaten Spain or Scotland for last couple of years – it's a tricky group in the sense that all teams feel they will have an opportunity of progressing to the quarter-finals so we will be looking to perform to our best in every game in order to get through.
"The first two games are massive as points difference is going to come into it as when teams are capable of beating each other you can miss out on qualification by a point. Every game is massive and I see this as a difficult group without a shadow of a doubt."
Wales: Adam Thomas (captain), Jason Harries, Rhys Shellard, James Davies, Sam Cross, Lee Williams, Alex Walker, Rhys Jones, Ashley Evans, Adam Field, Chris Knight, Luke Morgan.
