Rugby Sevens: Bronze shows NZ on right path

All Blacks Sevens during the first day of the Dubai 7s. Photo / Photosport

The All Blacks Sevens will approach their home tournament in Wellington next month with a degree of confidence after making significant progress in their second tournament of the series in Cape Town.

They won't be totally satisfied with the bronze medal in South Africa, but after coming eighth in Dubai, they have jumped up the HSBC World Sevens Series table to fifth after two tournaments. They lost just one match over the weekend " the 14-7 Cup semifinal defeat to South Africa " after dropping three games in Dubai.

The Cup final was won, somewhat surprisingly, by England, 19-17, after South Africa had appeared to be the form team over the two days.

New Zealand co-coach Scott Waldrom was much happier after a week of reviews and soul-searching.

"It is very pleasing to see the improvement they made over the week. We knew that week would have huge benefits for us and we saw the results. We know we have a bit of work to do to get that consistency, but we are making the right steps forward," Waldrom says.

The New Zealand defence had more starch, and there was more cohesion and better passing on attack. Sione Molia finished ranked No4 in World Rugby's performance tracker, which looks at several aspects of a player's output.

"It was just about staying in our systems and recognising what we need to do in our attack. Last week we just lacked a bit of match experience. We hadn't played in a few months and didn't have a lot of build-up time. We were a bit more consistent this weekend," Waldrom says.

After a double by captain Scott Curry helped New Zealand to a 28-7 win over Kenya in the Cup quarter-final, New Zealand were rank underdogs in the semi against the hosts, but started strongly, assertive both with and without the ball. Sherwin Stowers, one of several veterans to play with vim and vigour over the two days, scored the opening try. South Africa hit back with two breakout tries, the second a superb solo effort to Rosco Speckman. New Zealand were pressing hard when time ran out.

New Zealand won the bronze fixture, 24-19 over a game Scotland, who had never beaten them in World Series history. But they needed a last-minute Jonathan Ruru try to seal it.

Waldrom had plenty of praise for his more seasoned players, all of whom seemed to get a second wind in Cape Town.

"Those experienced guys really stepped up, Tim Mikkelson, DJ (Forbes) cops a bit of flak, but I thought he put his hand up and played pretty well. The other one, for me, is Rocky Khan, who has been in exile for a while, and he certainly had a big tournament. With a bit of time in the environment, I'm excited about what some of these guys can do."

There will be some rest for the players, though not a lot for Waldrom, who will studying tape of the provincial qualifying tournaments held around New Zealand over the last fortnight. The Mount Maunganui and national provincial sevens tournaments, set for the first two weekends in January, will be crucial for sourcing more players and gaining valuable match-time ahead of the January 28-29 Wellington Sevens.

"We want to have our guys with as much game time as possible, so a large portion of this squad will play at nationals. The top 20 from nationals will end up with contracts, so there's everything to play for and the opportunity if you play well," Waldrom added.