Tuesday Sep 07

Test Winger Turner Joins Rugby Sevens Training Squad

Test winger Lachie Turner will join the Australian Rugby Sevens squad in camp on Sunday as preparations get underway for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October.

Coach Michael O'Connor has selected a 14-man training squad which will assemble at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra from 4-7 July and has bolstered his side with the inclusion of Qantas Wallabies winger Turner and also 2009 Spring Tourist Luke Morahan.

Fullback Morahan has just returned home from the IRB Junior World Championships in Argentina where Australia recorded their best-ever result at the tournament to finish runners-up to New Zealand.

Flanker Liam Gill, lock Ed Quirk and centre Kimami Sitauti were also standout performers in the Australian U20s team.

Sevens captain Patrick McCutcheon returns to the squad after missing the final two legs of the IRB Sevens World Series through Super 14 duty with the NSW Waratahs.

The 23-year-old flanker has been involved with the national squad for the past month alongside Turner, playing two mid-week games for the Australian Barbarians against England.

Australia enjoyed a supreme run at the back end of their IRB Sevens series to finish third overall after claiming their first title since 2002 in London in May and made the final at the Edinburgh tournament a week later.

O'Connor's side have the chance to make history at the Delhi Games on 11-12 October.

Australia won the bronze medal in 1988 when Rugby Sevens was first granted entry in Kuala Lumpur but did not make the medal dais in 2002 or 2006.

Rugby Sevens returns to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Australian Rugby Sevens training squad: Bernard Foley, Liam Gill, Brackin Karauria-Henry, Patrick McCutcheon, Luke Morahan, Nicholas Phipps, Edward Quirk, Brian Sefanaia, Clinton Sills, Kimami Sitauti, James Stannard, Jacob Taylor, Lachie Turner, Daniel Yakapo

 - rugby.com.au -