All Blacks sevens into quarterfinal

New Zealand's Tim Mikkelson. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

The New Zealand men's sevens team sent an ominous warning to their rivals after posting three big wins and keeping their opponents scoreless on their way to topping their pool on day one of the Dubai round.

Tim Mikkelson became New Zealand's all-time leading tryscorer and climbed to seventh on the all-time list of all players after taking his tally past the 150 try mark.

Mikkelson dotted down five times in total as the All Blacks sevens outscored their pool opponents 120-0.

Mickkelson also moved to the top of the series tryscoring list in 2014/15 with nine after scoring a hat-trick in a 36-0 win over Japan and twice in the 41-0 romp over Samoa.

Ambrose Curtis, who scored four tries on day one, had his own hat-trick in a 43-0 rout of Scotland.

New Zealand will play England in tonight's quarter-finals.

New Zealand led 22-0 at half-time against Japan, after Mikkelson's hattrick and one to Curtis.

New Zealand then scored twice more in the second spell through Scott Curry and debutant Sam Vaka.

Gillies Kaka then bagged a brace of tries, while Joe Webber and Murphy Taramai also scored as the Gordon Tietjens coached side made light work of Scotland.

Vaka and Webber claimed their second tries for the day against Samoa, with Kurt Baker, Declan O'Donnell and Sherwin Stowers also dotting down.