Skinner out to make most of Sevens chance

By Howard Lloyd

Exeter Chiefs starlet Sam Skinner hopes being selected for the Premiership Sevens will lead to more first team opportunities this season.

The 20-year-old is part of a youthful 12-man squad selected by the Devon club to feature in their group tournament at Gloucester's Kingsholm ground tonight (7:15pm).

It rounds off an eventful spell for the second-year University of Exeter student, who helped England finish as runners up in the World Under-20 Championships in Italy over the summer.

Skinner also made his first team debut for the Chiefs last season before going on to make six appearances in all competitions, and he hopes it will put him in a strong position to feature more often this season.

"I feel I'm heading in the right direction," said the Exeter-born forward. "I've been really fortunate with the rugby exposure I've had and hopefully this tournament can kick-start a good pre-season for me. I'm still at university this year so I'm just taking things week by week and pushing myself as hard as possible to be playing at the highest level possible. If that happens then great.

"There are a lot of talented individuals in our (sevens) squad and a lot of pace around there as well, so it is pretty exciting."

By his own admission, Skinner is short of recent sevens experience, having not played the reduced format of the game regularly in recent years.

He said: "I played a bit at school level but haven't played much recently. It is a completely different game but it is great to try something new and make pre-season that little bit more intense.

"We've had two really good training sessions earlier this week and a few before that, so we're all looking forward to getting stuck in. We all like a challenge at the end of the day, so we all just have to play it as we see it and enjoy it."

One possible blow to Skinner's hopes of more game time this season could be the suspension of the LV= Cup due to the World Cup.

Traditionally a competition which clubs use to develop their younger players, Skinner made his debut in the Anglo-Welsh cup last November against Gloucester before making further appearances against Newport Gwent Dragons and Saracens.

But despite its absence from this season's fixture list, Skinner believes the unique make-up of the new campaign should still give Exeter's youngsters plenty of opportunities to show what they can do.

He said: "Having no LV= Cup does make this (sevens) competition an opportunity to prove yourself as it is a big starting point for the season and a good opportunity for the Chiefs to express themselves this year.

"But without the cup, it also means the season is going to be more compact and more intense. It will be gruelling on the players and could lead to a lot more squad rotation.

"Who knows though? We'll just have to wait and see how the season goes."