CAPTAIN Jevon Groves hopes an "uncomfortable" training block will help Wales enjoy sevens success in Dubai and South Africa, writes Chris Kirwan.

Wales reached the quarter-finals in the World Series opener on the Gold Coast in Australia last month but were hammered 39-5 by New Zealand in the last eight.

They are drawn in a pool with Commonwealth Games gold medallists South Africa, Canada and Portugal in Dubai this weekend with Groves hoping the hard graft at their Vale of Glamorgan headquarters will pay off.

"We had a really good training camp that was very tough physically and mentally," said the former Newport Gwent Dragons back row forward.

"We needed to address a few points from the Gold Coast, we've done that and have made training as uncomfortable as possible so that we can go to Dubai and South Africa to hit the ground running."

"The target is always to get through to the quarter-finals," he continued. "We are a new group and pretty inexperienced so we did well on the Gold Coast, hopefully we can kick on in the next two tournaments and push on a bit further."

Two Dragons – fly-half Steffan Jones and wing Luke Morgan – are in the 12-man squad.

Meanwhile, Elinor Snowsill will captain Wales Women at the Dubai Sevens and will be joined in the squad by her Dragons teammates Amy Day, Rachel Taylor and Sian Williams.

Coach Rhys Edwards said: "It will be interesting to see how the players cope in this competitive environment in front of big crowds. Hopefully we can use this tournament as a springboard looking ahead to next season's Six Nations."

Wales kick of the tournament tomorrow with a match against Kenya before taking on Moscow, Georgia and Ireland.

Squad: Keira Bevan (Skewen/Ospreys), Rafiuke Taylor (Pontyclun/Blues), Melissa Clay (Pencoed/Ospreys), Amy Day (Llandaf/Dragons), Sioned Harries (Whitland/Scarlets), Laurie Harries, (Llandaf/Blues), Jasmine Joyce (Haverdford West/Cardiff Met/ Scarlets), Elinor Snowsill (Bristol/Dragons), Adi Taviner (Skewen/Ospreys), Rachel Taylor (Bristol/Dragons), Sian Williams (Worcester/Dragons), Dyddgu Hywel (Pontyclun/Scarlets)