Dickson to debut for Canterbury

All Blacks sevens veteran Sam Dickson is over the injury which scratched him from the Olympics and will front for Canterbury in Dunedin tonight.

The 31-year-old Christchurch-born forward strained his hamstring in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games in July, denying him the chance to add to his 258 games and 89 tries.

Dickson has re-signed with the New Zealand Rugby sevens programme for another year with an eye on playing in a World Cup, Commonwealth Games and the World Series, but not before playing for injury-hit Canterbury the remainder of the NPC.

‘‘I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,’’ Dickson said, having been named on the bench tonight.

Dickson spent time with Canterbury in 2012 but failed to earn a cap before switching to sevens and representing New Zealand at the Rio Olympics, and winning silver and gold Commonwealth Games medals. He played for Bay of Plenty in last year’s NPC.

Canterbury have also welcomed back a familiar face in lock Hamish Dalzell, who is on loan from Auckland and will come off the bench. They are again without halfback Mitchell Drummond (hamstring), fullback Josh Mckay (ankle) and prop Tamaiti Williams (hamstring), although Drummond could return against Tasman next week.

Starting at No 10 this week, Jack Debreczeni is expected to depart for Japan after playing Otago.

The Black Caps are having to manage their captain’s workload carefully a week out from the start of their Twenty20 World Cup.

They had their final pretournament hit-out in Abu Dhabi yesterday against England and suffered a middle-order batting collapse on their way to a 13-run loss.

Kane Williamson fielded in the match but didn’t bat and coach Gary Stead said afterwards that his elbow injury had ‘‘flared up a little bit’’ after their loss to Australia two days prior.

He is expected to lead the side in their tournament opener against Pakistan (first ball 3am on Wednesday NZ time), but with their other four Super 12 matches coming in the space of seven days the following week he won’t have much time to rest.

Stead said Williamson’s absence from the batting crease against England ‘‘was more precautionary than anything’’ but when asked whether he might have to skip matches during the tournament, he acknowledged ‘‘there’s always that chance’’.

‘‘We’re still pretty hopeful and confident that if we get the rest right, initially here now, and get