Kiwi newcomers shine in canter to sevens quarterfinals
There were some early anxious moments, but New Zealand marked their return to the men’s World Sevens Series with three straight wins to book a Sunday quarterfinal in Singapore.
Making their first appearance of the 2021-22 series after a Covidenforced absence, captain Sam Dickson and his side with five exciting debutants beat Argentina (12-10), Scotland (19-7) and Wales (43-5) in pool C yesterday.
For last year’s Tokyo Olympic silver medallists it means a return to knockout rugby, starting with the second-placed side in pool B which was heading for a tight finish between Australia, Samoa and England.
Missing veterans Scott Curry and Tim Mikkelson, and sharpened by a training match against Samoa, there were some unknowns as New Zealand entered the series in round five against battle-hardened rivals. The Tokyo gold medal-winning women’s side resume in Canada in three weeks’ time.
As usual there were budding speedsters unveiled with Kitiona Vai (Auckland), Brady Rush (Northland), Leroy Carter (Bay of Plenty), Caleb Tangitau (Auckland) and Moses Leo (North Harbour) making their mark. Four of them – Leo, Carter, Vai and Tangitau – lit up the stadium to score as they cantered past Wales, with stand-in skipper Dylan Collier a huge presence. Leo bagged a double as New Zealand scored seven tries to rubber stamp their spot as top qualifiers.
Against Scotland some of the newcomers showed their class.
Tangitau sparked them up by racing 85m for a spectacular solo try to reply to Scotland’s early score as the Kiwis donned white jerseys for game two.
Trailing 7-5 at halftime, New Zealand capitalised on a Scotland sin-binning to put the match beyond doubt. Tangitau stepped and offloaded to Regan Ware for the go-ahead try, then Vai showed his pace and footwork to score New Zealand’s third.
Earlier, a late penalty miss by Argentina helped New Zealand men make a winning return.
Up 12-5 at halftime, New Zealand held off a desperate late finish by Argentina, the Olympic bronze medallists. Their lead looked shaky inside the final minute when Dickson was penalised and sin-binned for a late tackle with his team two points up.
But Argentina, with a one-man advantage, opted for a rarely seen penalty goal from about 30m out, and the drop-kick attempt flew wide to allow Dickson and his players a sigh of relief.
The skipper opened New Zealand’s account with a try after good leadup work from the speedy Joe Webber, after Argentina had scored early via Luciano Gonzalez.
New Zealand took the lead when Leo raced over to score from a well-worked wraparound move on the stroke of halftime. Argentina hit back soon after the break to narrow the gap, and New Zealand’s discipline was again tested when Andrew Knewstubb was penalised for a no-arms tackle.
Last time the sides met, at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, New Zealand won 35-14 in pool play on the way to a silver medal when losing to Fiji in the final.