NZ adds new blood

New Zealand have added two fresh faces to their side to play the opening tournament of the Sevens World Series at the Gold Coast in Australia.

New recruits Matt Clutterbuck (Bay of Plenty) and Tony Ensor (Otago) have earned their first call-ups into the squad after putting in impressive performances in the New Zealand development side.

Waikato speedster Joe Webber has been released from NPC duty for the All Blacks Sevens squad.

Coach Sir Gordon Tietjens said the tournament provided essential preparation for this week’s first leg of the Sevens World Series.

"That tournament wasn’t about winning for us. For me, the most important thing was Sevens conditioning and nothing beats real game time to help the guys get that conditioning.

"We've got a few guys who haven’t played Sevens for a while or who haven’t had a lot of rugby due to injury. It [the development side]certainly helped guys like Sherwin [Stowers], Lote [Raikabula] and Tomasi [Cama] get back on the Sevens horse.

"I'm pretty happy with how the boys went and it’s just what we needed heading into the first tournament of the Sevens World Series.

"Our focus now is to win this Gold Coast tournament. It’s pretty simple – we want to make the Top Four so we need to play well on Day 1, and then we focus on playing well on Day 2.

"We want to win this first leg of the Sevens World Series to kick-start our campaign. This is the most important year for us in terms of our road to the Olympics – we can’t take anything for granted and from our point of view, there are no easy games – so the goal is to win,” he said.

Webber’s call-up had been driven by a need for a seasoned winger.

"Joe’s experience will be really important out there as we do want to hit our straps running," he added.

New Zealand: Scott Curry, Tim Mikkelson, Sam Dickson, DJ Forbes (captain), Lote Raikabula, Tomasi Cama, Matt Clutterbuck, Gilles Kaka, Sherwin Stowers, Joe Webber, George Tilsley, Tony Ensor.