Sevens: Bay's Clutterbuck one of two NZ newcomers

Rangataua Sevens captain Matt Clutterbuck. Photo / John Borren

Bay of Plenty's Matt Clutterbuck and Otago's Tony Ensor are the new caps named in the the All Blacks Sevens side to play in the opening tournament of the HSBC World Sevens Series on the Gold Coast, in Australia this weekend.

Former Steamers lock/flanker Clutterbuck and Ensor have earned their first call-ups into the All Blacks Sevens squad after putting in impressive performances last weekend in the New Zealand development side that lost the Noosa Sevens Final to Fiji.

Coach Sir Gordon Tietjens said the Noosa tournament provided essential preparation for this weekend.

"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," said the Tauranga resident.

"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, and Noosa certainly helped guys like Sherwin [Stowers], Lote [Raikabula] and Tomasi [Cama] get back on the Sevens horse.

"It's just what we needed heading into the first tournament of the 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.

"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."

Waikato speedster Joe Webber has been released from ITM Cup duty 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," said Tietjens.