Henry Speight has been selected to make his sevens debut in Dubai, included in Australian coach’s Scott Bowen’s 12-man squad for the opening round of the 2015-16 season.
Speight will not play Super Rugby in 2016, instead focussing on making Australia’s Olympics team for 2016, where they have already qualified.
Joining Speight as a debutant will be former Waratahs winger Tom Kingston, who will add plenty of pace to Australia’s attack, and Stephan van der Walt.
Ed Jenkins skippers the team that was runner up in Dubai last year, with Pat McCutcheon and Nick Malouf the two big outs – both unavailable for selection due to injury.
Australia head to Dubai having won the Oceania Regional Olympic Qualifier in Auckland a fortnight ago.
Bowen said the team was excited to go one better this year.
“Everyone is excited for Dubai. The boys did well at the event 12 months ago and there is no reason to think we can’t perform well this time around.
“The team is looking sharp and the players are fit and raring to go. As a group, we are battle-hardened having played in some high-pressure tournaments. When you add the fact we have three debutants keen to make their mark, then it’s a tournament for all of us – from players, coaches and fans – to look forward to.”
Australian Men’s Sevens squad for the Dubai Sevens
1. Henry Speight
2. Tom Kingston
3. Sam Myers
4. Lewis Holland
5. James Stannard
6. Con Foley
7. Cameron Clark
8. Stephan van der Walt
9. Ed Jenkins
10. Allan Fa’alava’au
11. Pama Fou
12. Tom Cusack
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Well Kingston has been perennially injured.
deanB
Guest
Sad to see a talent like Kingston kept on the back burner while a perennial hot n cold show pony like Drew Mitchell gets yet another shot at coming up short.
cuw
Guest
@ Brisbans Boys : HK used to be the party. With money to burn now Dubai is the happenning 7s event of the 10-leg series. add to that the weekend will be just after the UAE national day (02/12) so there will be a hell of a show. i guess there may be videos in youtube of the fireworks display from the Burj Khalifa whihc is visible upto 5km !!! looking forwards to the national day holidays and of course the 7S :) as for Speight, just wondering why he was not played at least as a sub during the qualification round that Auzzy won. the weather and conditions would have been suitable for him to get used to the 7s run-around. though it is now approaching winter in middle east, the day temperatures still hover around 34C!!!
Machooka
Roar Guru
Yeah Rugger... disappointing non-selection of young Henry. I would've liked to have seen him given an opportunity. But as Brett has said it's also good to see Tom Kingston given a go.
Crash Ball2
Guest
Henry will be awesome in the 7s. At peak fitness, on attack, he is a close quarters metre eater and with extra space his one-on-one ability will constantly be on display. He was a revolation in the Club series and I expect he will revel in the conditions. Defensively he has some weaknesses but I also like that he will be forced to address these daily. As much as I hate to see him miss a season for the Ponies, I love that he is dedicating himself to the 7s program and becoming part of the tapestry pre-Olympics. I'll certainly be attending a leg or two of this season.
Rugger
Guest
Henry Hutchson needs to be brought in as half back or play maker. We need game breaker to create space.
nmpcart
Guest
Agreed Brett, Kingston really performed well in the NRC and I've been surprised that given his previous history with the Waratahs now that he seems to have overcome injuries that he hasn't been picked up by one of the Super Rugby sides.
Squirrel
Guest
Who gives a rats
Happyman
Guest
A magpie for me
Brett McKay
Expert
Really pleased to see Tom Kingston named too. Proved during the NRC that he's too good a footballer to be lost to the professional game in Australia..
Ken
Guest
Good to see a sprinkle of QRU SOUTHS MAGPIES players in the SQUAD.. One current MAGPIE VAN DER WALT
Markus
Guest
While all the talk has been on 15-a-side players not being up to scratch with the speed and skill levels required for Sevens (Speight being player of the tournament in the 2013 World Club Sevens suggests this is not the case), I agree that injury is the far bigger risk. There are a lot of games across the two days with very little down time in between, there is a lot of endurance fitness required to recover quickly between matches.
Brisbans Boys
Guest
Will be interesting to see how the 15 a side guys go playing sevens. They have to have a different type of fitness and to play these really intense short sprint games over two days. I have been to HK for a couple of tourneys and these guys are seriously fit athletes the evidence is that many of the guys who have done both end up with soft tissue injuries. Good Luck Henry PS the word is that after the HK tournament the Dubai one is the best party