Tietjens forced to go for youth

Amasio Valence is one of only five previous NZ sevens representatives. Ross Setford / Getty Images

More than half of the squad to defend New Zealand's IRB Wellington sevens crown have never played for their country and coach Gordon Tietjens will be "pleasantly surprised" if his side can win the tournament.

With New Zealand languishing in sixth place on the table, Tietjens has found himself again having to look to youth to field a competitive team after some of last year's team picked up Super 14 contracts or moved offshore.

Tietjens yesterday named his 12-man squad for the tournament starting in Wellington on Friday, and named seven newcomers to go with a handful of more experienced players.

The new caps are Auckland forwards DJ Forbes and Onosa'i Tololima-Auva'a, Counties-Manukau flanker James Maher, Otago flanker Alando Soakai, Waikato utility back Dwayne Sweeney, Wellington winger Cory Jane and his provincial teammate and utility back Lote Raikabula.

There was some good news with the most experienced player on the sevens circuit, Amasio Valence, and North Harbour flyer Zar Lawrence recovering from leg injuries to take their places in the squad.

Tietjens said New Zealand would have to be "a little bit reliant" on crowd support.

"It would be a real pleasant surprise to win this to be quite honest.

"We've started slowly, in Africa and Dubai, and there are six or seven teams that could win this tournament."

But he had high hopes for his new players and said there could be some new stars on display for the first time this weekend.

"There's certainly, collectively, a good bunch of young players that are very very talented.

"Without putting names to paper I think there are four or five of them that could put their hands up at the weekend."

Tietjens was satisfied with the players he had been able to name, given the congested rugby calendar, and didn't believe a handful of Super 14 players would have aided the cause at New Zealand's home tournament.

"To be good at sevens you've got to be playing it [regularly] and you've got to be conditioned to it. We've seen how many years ago we selected Christian Cullen, Caleb Ralph and Jonah Lomu but because they hadn't been involved actively in sevens, hadn't played for such a long time, there weren't any real advantages with that."

Tietjens said his new players had the passion and enthusiasm to win.

"I have all the confidence in the world that if my players perform to their potential they can go very very close."

He acknowledged his role in New Zealand rugby was as something of an oracle of talent spotting and then introducing players to professional rugby. His role was to develop players and hopefully help them into Super 14 teams, New Zealand under-19s, Colts, Junior All Blacks or All Blacks.

"By having a player selected in any of those teams of a higher level it's a real satisfaction for me, even more so, perhaps, than winning a tournament." 
 

NZ squad

Charles Baxter (Bay of Plenty), DJ Forbes (Auckland), Nigel Hunt (Wellington), Tafai Ioasa (Hawkes Bay, captain), Cory Jane (Wellington), Zar Lawrence (North Harbour), James Maher (Counties Manukau), Lote Raikabula (Wellington), Alando Soakai (Otago), Dwayne Sweeney (Waikato), Onosa'i Tololima-Auva'a (Auckland), Amasio Valence (Auckland).

- NZPA