Tasman lads in line for sevens debut

Tasman rookies Trael Joass and Andrew Knewstubb will get their chance to debut for the New Zealand men’s sevens team at the next leg ot the World Series in Sydney this weekend.

Both players are newcomers in the squad for the fourth leg of the world series, with the rest of the team unchanged from when they finished fifth at Wellington last weekend.

Isaac Te Tamaki and Tone Ng Shiu, who played at Wellington, are travelling reserves.

New Zealand captain Scott Curry said it was exciting have the two new Tasman blokes in the team.

‘‘Stubby was player of the tournament in our national tournament back in Rotorua, so I’m excited to see how he goes and Trael is looking really good at training,’’ Curry said. ’’So a couple of those boys get their opportunity this week and it will be good to see how they go.’’

After being bundled out of the cup quarterfinals by Fiji last weekend, Curry wanted his side to finish off their line breaks when they get to Sydney.

‘‘We created a lot of opportunities in Wellington, especially in the Fiji game, but we just didn’t finish. So that’s definitely one of our work ons and securing the ball in the contact area. We lost a bit of ball in that area so we’ve been working on that as well.’’

New Zealand coach Scott Waldrom wanted improvement from last weekend.

‘‘We learned a lot from Wellington and continue to work on what’s required to win in what has become a very tough world series,’’ Waldrom said. ’’Last weekend’s Fiji quarterfinal showed us that if you make a few mistakes you will be punished by the opposition and we can’t afford that this weekend with another tough pool.’’

New Zealand play Australia, Papua new Guinea and Scotland in pool play on Saturday.

Waldrom said Australian will be tough in front of their home crowd and Scotland have been consistent, so they need to be at their best to make it through to the cup competition.