The All Blacks Sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens has named two newcomers in his squad for the opening tournament of the World Sevens Series on the Gold Coast in Australia this weekend.
Coach Gordon Tietjens holds the IRB 7s World Series Trophy and DJ Forbes holds the London 7s Trophy after the match. 2014. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Matt Clutterbuck of Bay of Plenty and Tony Ensor of Otago have earned their first call-ups to the squad after putting in impressive performances last weekend in the New Zealand development side that lost the Noosa sevens final to Fiji.
Waikato speedster Joe Webber has been released from ITM Cup duty and has joined the squad in Australia.
Tietjens says they've got a few guys who haven't played sevens for a while or who haven't had a lot of rugby due to injury and last weekend's Noosa tournament certainly helped guys like Sherwin Stowers, Lote Raikabula and Tomasi Cama get back on the Sevens horse.
He says he's pretty happy with how the boys went, and it's just what we needed heading into the first tournament of the World Series.
Tietjens says this is the most important year for them in terms of their road to the Olympics - they can't take anything for granted and from their point of view, there are no easy games - so the goal is to win.
New Zealand play France, Japan and Samoa in pool play on Saturday.
The team is (*new to All Blacks Sevens):
1. Scott Curry
2. Tim Mikkelson
3. Sam Dickson
4. DJ Forbes, captain
5. Lote Raikabula
6. Tomasi Cama
7. Matt Clutterbuck*
8. Gilles Kaka
9. Sherwin Stowers
10. Joe Webber
11. George Tilsley
12. Tony Ensor*
