KEY POINTS:
A red-hot New Zealand sevens team defied wet weather to scatter their nearest rivals to all corners of Twickenham yesterday on the way to their second tournament title of the world series.
In a trio of performances that bore the hallmarks of the most dominant years under coach Gordon Tietjens, New Zealand shut out South Africa 14-0 in the quarter-finals and Samoa 19-0 in the semifinals before outclassing Fiji 29-7 in a one-sided final.
Tietjens agreed his five-time champion team had not played as well for at least two years although he admitted the damp London weather had worked in their favour.
"It possibly suited us, we were more accurate than the other teams, I think we adapted best," he said.
"I've got some good forwards who handle the ball well, the likes of DJ Forbes and Edwin Cocker.
"And you can't take anything away from the way we looked after our tryline, defending so well in only conceding one try [today]."
New Zealand move past Samoa into second place and 10 points behind Fiji with just this weekend's eighth and final tournament of the International Rugby Board series remaining.
To win their second successive title, Fiji must advance through pool play and win their quarter-final.
They should achieve this but, if they do not, a New Zealand victory would see them sneak the series crown.
A repeat win is not beyond Tietjens' men, who have struggled to rediscover the early-season form that saw them win the second tournament of the 2006-07 series at George, South Africa, in December.
"It's been coming," Tietjens said.
"If you go back over the last two tournaments [Hong Kong and Adelaide], we were only knocked out of both in the semis in the last play of the game really.
"But this would be one of our most dominant performances for a little while now."
New Zealand are likely to be without injured pair Nigel Hunt (knee cartilage) and Ben Atiga (hamstring) in Edinburgh, although full medical assessments will be made before determining whether replacements should be called from New Zealand.
The pair were barely missed in a final which saw Zar Lawrence cross either side of halftime while late tries went to Roy Kinikinilau and Adam Thomson.
The first try went to Afeleke Perenise, taking his tournament tally to 11. Tietjens described the winger's weekend return as "magnificent. We go to Murrayfield with a glimmer of hope. We're going to keep them honest and have a crack in Scotland".
Standings
Fiji 120
New Zealand 110
Samoa 106
South Africa 88
England 50
Australia 32
France 28
Wales 26
Scotland 22
- NZPA
