The Greek 7s side heads to Cyprus next weekend for the Paphos leg of the FIRA European Championship, hoping to fare better than they did on their recent trip to Bucharest

Coach Niall Doherty has made sweeping changes to the side that came eighth in a ten-team tournament in Romania, dropping nine and retaining only the captain Georgos Tsatsaronis.

Tsatsaronis recently captained Athens to the domestic 7s championship, adding it to the regular XVs title that the club also won in May.

One of the newcomers is Theo Malthouse, who has been playing for Richmond, one of the oldest clubs in the world, in England's National Two (South) Championship.

Another England-based player William Martin has also been called up. His twin brother Mark made his debut for the XV against Luxembourg in Patras in February.

Coach Niall Doherty was impressed by the way a largely third-string outfit performed in Romania - they beat Bulgaria but lost 7-5 to Cyprus in the 5^th-8^th place play-offs. This is spite of the fact that one member of the squad failed to turn up at the airport.

However, he is now looking at a significant improvement as he takes a far stronger side to Paphos.

He is also mindful of the fact that Rugby Sevens will be an Olympic sport from 2016.

"I believe 7s is the way forward for the development of the game in Greece," he told SIG.

"I really believe that we can build a very strong 7s side going forward based on a mix of home and overseas players capable of qualifying for the Olympics in 2016.

"We could even squeeze into the European Championships next year providing we have the time and resources.

Doherty has made no bones about the fact he would be keen to continue working with both the 7s and the XVs if the opportunity arose.

Two years ago Doherty, 56, quit as national coach because of what he alleged to be federation interference in his team selection for the Corfu 7s. But that he says is water under the bridge.

"There was too much blame on federation at that time for my liking," he says.

"We have to be positive, positive, positive and it will happen. The ship will gather steam. I believe we can do great things here in Greece if we all work together."

Greece will meet France, Germany, Cyprus and Israel in the June 12/13 competition.

Croatia, Serbia, Spain, Georgia and Malta are also taking part.

One downside is that experienced wing Chris Fiotakis of Nice-Cote d'Azur had to pull out of the side after dislocating a finger during a game in France. He has been replaced by Yiannis Rizos of Athens.

Squad: Georgos Tsatsaronis (Athens, captain), Giorgos Soilemezidis (Iraklis), Spiros Terezakis (Thessaloniki Lions), Alexandre Gounari (Attica Springboks), Vasillis Katsakos (Athens), Phillipos Sotiriades (Athens), Marios Gourmagias (Iraklis), William Martin (Bath University, England), Theo Malthouse (Richmond, England), Yiannis Rizos (Athens)