OLYMPIAN Jasmine Joyce knows that she has a fight on her hands to win a recall to the Wales XV for the Six Nations.

The winger, who was a member of the Team GB sevens team at Rio four years ago, has been included in the squad for the tournament, which kicks off against Italy at the Arms Park a week on Sunday.

Joyce, along with her Wales teammates Hannah Jones and Alisha Butchers, spent three months playing sevens for University of Adelaide last year and hopes to reap the benefits in Test rugby.

"Playing with and against some of the best sevens players in the world for the Romas was amazing," said the 24-year-old, who has been playing for Worcester Warriors.

"I learned so much from seeing how other people play sevens and hopefully now we can bring our experience back to the 15-a-side game in Wales."

South Wales Argus:

Joyce has won 15 caps and played for the Barbarians but the speedster has bright talent hot on her heels after Wales gave plenty of opportunities in the November games against Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Crawshay's and the Baa Baas.

She said: "I watched the autumn games from Australia before coming home and I really feared for my place with some exciting new players coming through.

"Selection for our opening game is getting close and we all want to up our game to put our hands up.

"I definitely think having new young players in the squad has made us more competitive and added an important edge to training."

Wales were edged out 22-12 by Ireland in a warm-up friendly last weekend with Alisha Butchers and Kerin Lake crossing for tries.

The countdown is on to the opening clash against the Italians, who finished as runners-up to England in last year's tournament.

The spoils were shared 3-3 in Lecce when Joyce had a sensational try ruled out for a forward pass in the build-up.

"Italy always bring something different, they are a flair team that are on the up, but so are we," said Joyce.

"Then we have Ireland away so we'll be looking for a good start to the tournament."