Just days after returning to Australia after spending close to three months on tour with the Wallabies, Sevens recruit Henry Speight has returned to training at Narrabeen in preparation for this weekend’s Olympic qualification tournament in New Zealand.

Speight has been named in an extended 15-man squad for the two day tournament in Auckland, where Australia will look to book a spot at the Rio Olympics by winning the competition.

“I’m very excited and very humbled as well. I’m really grateful to the management for having me this week, obviously the goal is Rio but this week is a major step towards that so we aren’t getting too far ahead of ourselves,” Speight said after finishing his first official session with the squad

“It’s good to get back in the groove of things, the boys have been really welcoming and have taken me on board. I think it’ll take me a few days to get up to speed but so far it’s been really good.”

Speight signed a unique three year contract extension earlier this year, allowing the Fijian born winger to split his time between the Brumbies, Wallabies and the Australian Sevens program until the end of 2018.

Despite his heavy workload, the 27-year old isn’t worried about burning out.

“It shouldn’t be too bad, even though it hasn’t been done before. The trainers here and the Brumbies trainers are all in unison so I won’t be too overloaded,” he said.

Interim coach Tim Walsh said he was thrilled to have Speight in the program, but admitted he had a lot of hard work ahead of him.

“To get Henry in at such an early stage is great for him to see how it all works, learn the systems and find out what he needs to do to prove himself to be an Australian Sevens player,” Walsh said.

“He’s a great finisher and very well experienced from a rugby point of view, plus he adds some x-factor and a bit of prestige to the Sevens as well.”

Having played limited minutes for the Wallabies in the lead up to and during the Rugby World Cup, Speight said there was no shortage of motivation to work his way into the Sevens side.

“I feel like the new kid at school. I’ll just try and learn off some of the more experienced players in the squad and try and take tips off them,” Speight added.

“It’s a great opportunity, the Olympics don’t come around that often. There is a really good group here, it’s a really good program and all the boys are top class players so for anyone to come in, they’ll need to be on the top of their game because there are no guaranteed spots when you come in.”

Fiji and New Zealand qualified automatically for the Olympics after finishing in the top four of the 2014/15 World Sevens Series, leaving Australia to compete against Tonga, Samoa, Nauru, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, American Samoa and the Soloman Islands for the final automatic spot at Rio.

“I’ve kept close tabs on the side recently, the boys got up on the Central Coast 7’s a few weeks ago against a shadow Fijian team so that was a really good result,” Speight said.

“Prior to that they were in New Zealand for three days playing some really good opposition so they’ve had a lot of game time leading into this weekend.”

If Australia fail to win the tournament, but finish in the top three, they will qualify for the Olympic repechage tournament next year, with the final spot at Rio up for grabs.