NZ Herald Focus Sport's Cheree Kinnear wraps day four, our first medal, and is joined by boxer David Nyika as he prepares for his first Olympics bout. Video / NZ Herald
Three from three for the All Blacks Sevens to book their place as top qualifiers for the Olympic quarter-finals where they will meet Canada later tonight.
Australia pushed New Zealand to the brink in their final Pool A match to lead 12-0 at halftime.
New Zealand, however, displayed character to regroup for a 14-12 victory, overcoming a second half yellow card to remain undefeated after three games, having defeated Argentina 35-14 and South Korea 50-5 yesterday.
With a superior points differential to fellow pool winners Fiji and South Africa, New Zealand qualify as the No 1 seed for the quarter-finals.
Clark Laidlaw's side will face Canada in their quarterfinal at 8.30pm (NZT) tonight after they snuck into the final eight with a 1-2 record but by virtue of a two point differential over Ireland.
New Zealand's top seeding gives them easiest quarter-final. In the knockout matches, Fiji meet Australia, South Africa plays Argentina and USA faces Great Britian.
With his size and strength Wallabies midfielder Sam Kerevi caused havoc in the first half to open the scoring against New Zealand.
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Australia controlled virtually all the first half possession, with New Zealand desperately defending their own line but they could not repel Nick Malouf from extending the lead to 12-0 at half time.
Dylan Collier responded for New Zealand immediately after the break but then undid his good work by conceding a yellow card for taking an opponent out in the air from the restart.
New Zealand displayed supreme composure while one man short to retain the ball and create space on the edges, with Andrew Knewstubb bursting through to steal the lead.
After coming off the bench for a second stint Kerevi made one final error to seal victory for New Zealand.
Australia's Lewis Holland tackled by New Zealand's Andrew Knewstubb. Photo / AP
Laidlaw was delighted to top the group.
"The performances we've had to defend a lot we'd like to get a bit more ball," Laidlaw said.
"We all know the Olympics is about winning games. You can try and improve but it's all about getting to that quarter-final so we need to rest up and get ready for whoever we've got later on this afternoon.
"Everyone has shared the workload and we think that's really important. We know it's going to take 13 guys to progress.
"We often talk that sevens is a true game of consequence so humility has to be really high because it can find you if you slip off. Now it's a race to recover."
Veteran Joe Webber felt New Zealand needed to lift for the knockouts.
"That was a good lesson for the boys in how to grind it out. We didn't feel nervous out there. That whole first half we had the ball once if that," Webber said.
"You could see they really wanted it and they gave it to us physically so we didn't match it."
Five years ago at the Rio Olympics, the All Blacks Sevens finished fifth after losing to Japan before being knocked out of medal contention with the 12-7 defeat to eventual gold medallists Fiji in the quarter-final.
In the 2016 gold medal rematch earlier today, Fiji made a statement by thumping Great Britian 33-7 to qualify top of Pool B.
Great Britain had not conceded a point before that match after dispatching Canada (24-0) and Japan (34-0) on day one, but the Rio silver medallists were blown away by Fiji who scored five tries by maximising their size and physicality to bully the Brits into submission.
