AFTER missing out on the chance to test his skills at the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s in recent years, Wasps centre Elliot Daly is relishing the chance to show his talents in this season’s competition and is hoping to make it third time lucky at the Ricoh Arena.
Injury has ruled out the 22-year-old for the past two years but a clean bill of health this pre-season has seen Daly named in a strong Wasps outfit.
The Aviva Premiership Rugby player of the month for March will be joined by fellow fliers Christian Wade and Josh Bassett, together with new signing scrum-half Dan Robson, who was part of Gloucester Rugby’s title-winning 7s squad last season.
Wasps will have an added boost as they host Harlequins, Northampton Saints and Saracens for their Group C ties in front of a home crowd at the Ricoh this Friday.
And Daly is hoping that a vocal home support will inspire the club on to another successful season of rugby in Coventry.
“I’m really excited because the last couple of years I haven’t been involved as I’ve had a couple of injuries so I’m really looking forward to getting out there and pulling on the Wasps jersey,” said Daly.
“I think 7s just gives that different focus from pre-season, when we play a lot of conditioned games.
“Singha 7s is going to be amazing this year, there’s going to be some great talent on show, lots of tries, hopefully the crowd is going to be amazing and it’s going to be a great atmosphere.
“The atmosphere is going to be big, It’s the first rugby that’s going to be on in Coventry this season.
“So carrying on from last year when we sold out the Ricoh Arena a couple of times there’s going to be a lot of buzz and hopefully everyone is going to get behind us.”
With the Rugby World Cup delaying the start of the season, Daly is also looking to use the Singha 7s as an ideal warm up to build towards this year’s Aviva Premiership Rugby action.
And the England centre believes the gap between the competitions will allow Wasps to try out a greater number of players to boost their attempt to improve on the feats of last year.
“We’re still so far from the start of the season it just gets the ball in your hand and it gets everyone involved,” he added.
“The amount of time we’ve got before the season has helped this year for us to put a bigger squad out.
“Last year there was only a couple of weeks before the start of the season but this Singha 7s has come at a great time where we can put out a lot of good first team players, with a lot of rest in between until the start of the season.”
Tickets for the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s Series are now on sale. For full details see premiershiprugby.com/7s
