Change of co-captains for NZ 7s

Scott Curry and Tim Mikkelson have played a key role in coach Clark Laidlaw handing the New Zealand Sevens co-captaincy to a new duo.

Sione Molia and Kurt Baker will take the co-captaincy reins for New Zealand’s final two tournaments of the World Series season, in London and Paris.

They will lead a side featuring a number of young, inexperienced talent, but also bolstered by the return of Regan Ware in the backline.

Curry and Mikkelson are the old heads in the sevens squad, and have been cocaptains for much of Laidlaw’s tenure. But the pair were keen for Laidlaw to test a new pairing, building the overall leadership skills in the team.

‘‘They were probably the ones who convinced me to do it in the end,’’ Laidlaw said of the change in co-captaincy.

‘‘The theory has come from working with our sports psychologist about how we accelerate the leadership within the team and management.’’

Laidlaw said Curry and Mikkelson were keen to see how Molia and Baker would go, and have seamlessly slotted into a mentoring role.

It may only be a temporary move, but Laidlaw is keen to see how the players will grow from the opportunity.

Molia slotted into the role for the Singapore tournament and excelled, having become one of the key cogs of the New Zealand side over the past two years.

Also joining the side are Bailey Simonsson, Salesi Rayasi and Jona Nareki, all in line to make their second tournament appearance, with a number of players unavailable.

Andrew Knewstubb, Vilimoni Koroi, Amanaki Nicole, Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, Joe Ravouvou and Joe Webber were all unavailable for selection.

New Zealand are third in the World Series, behind leaders Fiji and secondplaced South Africa, but head to Europe hoping to secure their second victory on the series this season.

Despite an inconsistent campaign thus far, the team won the Commonwealth Games gold medal, which was a key focus, and is now building toward the World Cup in San Francisco in July, another of its major goals.

‘‘We had the three key focuses this season, which was the Commonwealth Games, the World Cup, and centralisation.

‘‘Two of the three have gone brilliantly, and we’re coming up to the third. That’s the focus now, but obviously we want to go and win these two tournaments to build up to that.’’

He said the players had been working on developing their game further since the Gold Coast victory, and will reveal some of their new tricks in Europe.

Kurt Baker (cocaptain), Sione Molia (co-captain), Dylan Collier, Scott Curry, Sam Dickson, Tim Mikkelson, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Jona Nareki, Tone Ng Shiu, Salesi Rayasi, Akuila Rokolisoa, Bailey Simonsson, Regan Ware.