NZ’s milestone Dubai Sevens win
Co-captain Scott Curry has celebrated his 200th match for the New Zealand men’s sevens side with a win and two tries in Dubai yesterday.
New Zealand made a winning start to the season in their first match of the opening tournament of the HSBC World Sevens Series with a 28-7 win over Wales.
Curry celebrated the milestone game with the second try of the new season.
The first went to Andrew Knewstubb as New Zealand carried a 14-0 lead into halftime.
New Zealand survived a power play late in the first half when Ngarohi McGarvey-Black was given an automatic yellow card for a high tackle.
Luke Treharne scored Wales’ first try midway through the second half to cut New Zealand’s lead in half to 14-7.
But Scott Gregory scored his first try for New Zealand, just a minute later, to extend the lead to 21-7.
Tone Ng Shiu could have scored himself on the back of a Curry break but he handed the ball to Gregory.
Curry then scored his second try to advance the score to 28-7.
New Zealand were dealt an early blow when Jona Nareki was ruled out of the tournament shortly before the Wales match.
That came on the back of the earlier loss of veteran Kurt Baker, also to injury.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Michaela Blyde has become just the fifth woman to score 100 tries in the World Series.
Blyde, the current women’s world sevens player of the year, reached the milestone in her side’s 31-0 quarterfinal victory over Russia yesterday.
It was New Zealand’s second victory over Russia in as many days following a pool win.
Blyde wasn’t the only scorer to reach a milestone in the quarterfinal victory with Gayle Broughton notching her 50th try on the world circuit.
Two Kelly Brazier tries in the first half gave New Zealand a 14-0 halftime lead over Russia.
Captain Sarah Goss joined Broughton and Blyde as secondhalf try scorers in the five triesto-nil victory.
Tyla Nathan-Wong converted three of the five tries.
Allan Bunting’s side – the current Commonwealth Games and Women’s Sevens World Cup champions and Women’s Sevens World Series runners-up in 2017-18 – were to take on USA in their semifinal overnight.
New Zealand scored opening day victories over Kenya (34-7), Russia (29-12) and Ireland (24-17) to top Pool A.