All Blacks Sevens team for Tokyo and Hong Kong Sevens

Mar 14 • General News, International, Sevens World Series • 1779 Views • Comments Off on All Blacks Sevens team for Tokyo and Hong Kong Sevens

Coach Gordon Tietjens has named the following 12 players to play in the sixth and seventh legs of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Tokyo (22, 23 March) and Hong Kong (28-30 March).

The team is:

Scott Curry
Ambrose Curtis
Sam Dickson
DJ Forbes (capt)
Bryce Heem
Gillies Kaka
Akira Ioane
Ben Lam
Marty McKenzie*
Tim Mikkelson
Sherwin Stowers
George Tilsley

* new cap
Not considered because of injury; Waisake Naholo (knee), Tomasi Cama (calf)

The team features the return of Sam Dickson from suspension, the second tournament for exciting young Aucklander Akira Ioane who played Sevens Wellington and one new cap in Taranaki back Marty McKenzie who joined the contracted squad this season.

“Marty has a very good rugby brain, he is very fit, a great defender and it’s an opportunity to expand our base,” said Coach Gordon Tietjens. “With Tomasi Cama out and getting on in age so we need to be building depth and Marty is going to give us that in his position at half back.”

Veteran Lote Raikabula, a key member of the team who has played in more than 60 World Series tournaments since his debut in 2006, misses selection.

“Lote hasn’t found his form of last year and he needs to find it, but you have to reward players who perform. The forwards we have picked, including Sam Dickson who is coming back from suspension, gives us a very big forward pack, with Akira Ioane in there too and Bryce Heem and Scott Curry who are probably the form players. Lote is by no means ruled out of the calculations moving forward, because he is a very good player.”

Tietjens also expects Cama to come back from injury. “He is an outstanding footballer and looks after himself really well and I know one of his goals is to part of the Olympics.

“I’m looking forward to Tokyo and Hong Kong. We want to back up Wellington with another good performance. We played extremely well outside the loss to Fiji and we want to continue with that form.”

Listen to the full interview with Gordon Tietjens here

The team departs for Tokyo on Tuesday 18 March. Please note that Japan is currently four hours behind New Zealand; Hong Kong is five hours.