Bishop's Stortford RFC winger Chris Smith plays for Wales in rugby sevens at Birmingham Commonwealth Games

Bishop’s Stortford’s Chris Smith got to sample one of the summer’s biggest sporting occasions when he represented Wales in the rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games.

The winger received a call-up to the squad on the eve of the competition after being chosen to replace Olympic silver medallist Sam Cross, who had to withdraw due to a knee injury, for the tournament in Birmingham.

The event got under way last Thursday (July 28) with the opening ceremony at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, and the rugby sevens competition came to a conclusion on Sunday at the Coventry Stadium.

Smith’s Wales were in Pool C and lost 31-0 to Canada before bouncing back to beat Zambia 38-5, with Smith among the try scorers, in Friday’s games.

They then fought hard when losing 38-24 to 2016 and 2020 Olympic champions Fiji in their final group game as their medal hopes were ended on Saturday morning.

Wales did see off Malaysia 33-14 later that day as they attempted to reach the ninth-place play-off, but that eluded them when they went down 14-10 to England on Sunday.

South Africa won the competition thanks to a 31-7 win over Fiji in the final.