Ella to finalise squad for IRB Sevens series

Coach Glen Ella will use an afternoon of trial matches in Sydney this Sunday to finalise a 20-man Australian squad for the upcoming IRB Sevens series.

The squad, which will be announced early next week, will also give Ella a pool of players from which to select the team for next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The trials will kick off at 1:00pm at Forshaw Rugby Park, with more than 30 players involved in six matches. The trials will be followed by the NSW vs QLD U19 clash which kicks off at 3:00pm.

The draws for Dubai and George were released by the IRB overnight, with Australia's draw giving them a good look at the other Commonwealth Games nations.

In Dubai (1-2 December) Australia is in Pool C with England, Kenya and Uganda while in George (9-10 December) they will face Fiji, Scotland and Namibia. All these team will play in the Commonwealth Games on 16-17 March.

Flying into Sydney for the Australian Sevens trials will be Victorian Christian Lealiifano as well as speedster Arthur Little.

Little scored on debut for the Waratahs during last year's tour to Argentina, but has recently moved to Wagga Wagga, while Lealiifano was part of the gold medal team in the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo last year and also played in the Australia A Schoolboys' historic win over New Zealand Schools last month.

Ella said this Sunday's trials were the culmination of two months of intensive Sevens training involving 45 players.

"We have had a core group of players training hard in Sydney and Brisbane since August, developing their speed, strength and Sevens specific skills," Ella said.

"We had a good look at the Brisbane-based players at the Byron Bay Sevens last week and we will now run the ruler over the Sydney-based players.

"We have a number of incumbent Australian Sevens players playing in the trials on Sunday, such as Josh Gamgee, Shaun Mackay and Richie O'Connor.

"There will also be plenty of talented young players who have emerged through Premier Rugby and the domestic Sevens tournaments, so competition will be tough."

Ella will take a 12-man team to the invitational Singapore Cricket Club Sevens on 5-6 November before finalising the Australian team for the Dubai and George Sevens.