THEY may head into the Men of Gwent Sevens as hot favourites but Newport’s Craig Hill has stressed it will take plenty of hard graft to ensure their name is engraved on the trophy once again.

The Black and Ambers have won the last three tournaments at Rodney Parade with Hill, a Sevens World Cup winner with Wales in 2009, a key figure on each occasion.

But 29-year-old openside flanker believes they will face some tough opposition tomorrow.

“I suppose some might say we are the team to beat but in sevens all it takes is one bad bounce, one score and the game has gone away from you,” he said.

“There is no hiding place and there are plenty of teams in the tournament that will fancy their chances.

“There are more invitational sides this year who we don’t know a lot about. I am sure they will have lots of dangerous players, so it will be tough.

“But we will give it our best and I think we have a good mix in our squad.

“We have players like Danny Ajuwa, Elliott Frewen and Owen Broad that have plenty of sevens experience along with players that have been there from the start like Scott Williams and Andrew Brown so there is a nice mix.”

Newport will be without speedster Ifan Evans due to his Wales Sevens training commitments.

* The Friends of Newport Rugby Beer Festival opens at Rodney Parade this afternoon. There will be 20 real ales and two ciders on offer at the event, which is until 11pm tonight and runs from 11am to 11pm tomorrow.

POOL A: Cross Keys, Dragons Academy, Fire Service, Glantaf Goats, Stash Sharks.

POOL B: Bedwas, Newport, Pontypool, Kratos Titans.

Pool winners progress to final at 5.45pm