As the commonwealth games rapidly approaches, and the seven season nears its end, it is time to reflect on a past eight months of eighty thousand miles of flying and travel to the four corners of the world, in the company of some wonderful sevens rugby players and people, making the IRB sevens series such a wonderful experience.

A coach of the Wales sevens team I have great memories of wonderful places visited, great games, and some great individual playing performances from players of all nationalities. The sevens series commenced in the desert of Dubai in November 2001, with Wales winning the bowl competition in a great final against Portugal. The series then moved quickly onto Durban in South Africa where Wales lost narrowly in the bowl final to a powerful Namibian team.

From there after celebrating Christmas at home it was down to south America where Chile was the next venue and a chance to celebrate new years eve in the Chilean capital Santiago, a wonderful experience indeed. A good performance in this event saw young Wales's team lead New Zealand at half time in the pool game before losing narrowly. Wales eventually lost in the quarter final of the cup competition to Samoa.

A short flight over the Andes took us next to the seas side resort of Mar Del Plat, Argentina a wonderful location to play rugby. Another good performance saw Wales eventually lose out to South Africa again in the quarter final of the cup.

February saw the series move to the sunshine coast in Australia where Brisbane, a beautiful city being the host of the tournament. A disappointing result here saw Wales fail to make the cup knockout stages. Australia with all their stars back won the tournament playing some wonderful sevens on the way.

A short flight across the Tasman Sea took the series to Wellington New Zealand where in the space of an amazing two hours I had two very different experiences. One good and one bad.

Firstly the bad, losing to New Zealand 67-0 was not a good experience. Secondly the good, one hour after losing to the all blacks a young Wales team beat Australia 19-17 and the sound of 35 thousand d people singing tom Jones Delilah was truly an amazing experience, the ups and downs of sevens rugby.

After a short stop at home it was time to go again this time Beijing, China was the location a superb experience visiting such places as the great wall, Tianamen square and the forbidden city. And the rugby wasn't bad either.

Then onto the big one Hong Kong the weeklong rugby parties. Where Wales played England in the semi final, a wonderful experience for everyone involved with both teams as well as the 40 thousand crowds. The atmosphere in the ground was amazing as England pipped us at the end.

Singapore and Malaysia were the next venues both outstanding events with Wales winning the bowl in Singapore after a sudden death final against Japan. Singapore must be congratulated on staging a great tournament at their first attempt.

A quarterfinal game between Wales and England in Malaysia was a great occasion and was only spoiled by the flooded pitch.

With all the flying now over it was London and Cardiff next a great performance in London saw Wales beat Fiji for the first time before eventually losing to new Zealand in the semi final, our best performance to date.

The millennium stadium was next the final event of the series and Wales were tipped to do well. The less said the better.

Overall it was a series of great enjoyment and great improvement by Wales who accumulated 50 series points and maintained their world ranking of eighth.

Congratulations to the samurais for all their great results this season so far. The performance by them in the final of the Lisbon sevens will rank as good as any I have seen this year by any team. It was great to be coaching the samurais again and I am looking forward to the next event before the IRB series starts again.