No excuses from Tietjens after two opening failures 

New Zealand sevens rugby coach Gordon Tietjens said there was no excuses after his team ended up with one of their worst finishes in a tournament yesterday.

They were beaten by Samoa in the lower plate semifinal of the George sevens in South Africa after Fiji had eliminated them from cup play with a 43-14 thumping.

"We were comprehensively beaten by Fiji, no excuses whatsoever," said Tietjens.

"We certainly have to look at the way we're playing, we just had no ball. When we had it, we had it for short periods because we weren't patient enough.

"And really, it's all about the basics of sevens and you've got to make tackles. We missed too many tackles, especially against Fiji.

"We started the game really well but we deviated from the game plan and they punished us because of that."

Tietjens said he would pick a fresh squad from the national tournament in Queenstown next month for February's Wellington leg of the international series.

"It is certainly very disappointing. The teams that beat us - Argentina [in pool play] and Fiji - played very, very well. Argentina nearly beat Fiji in the final but Fiji did look the form side right throughout."

The Fijians beat Argentina 21-19 in the final and lead the series with 36 points followed by England (32), South Africa (24), Argentina and Samoa (both on 20). New Zealand are sixth with 14 points following their 17-5 loss to Samoa in the plate semifinals.

- NZPA