New Zealand national rugby sevens team

The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record 14 World Rugby Sevens Series titles.

New Zealand
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)All Blacks Sevens
EmblemSilver Fern
UnionNew Zealand Rugby Union
Head coachTomasi Cama
Top scorerTomasi Cama (2,028)
Top try scorerTim Mikkelson (235)
Home stadiumWaikato Stadium
First colours
Second colours
First international
 New Zealand 18–22  Ireland
(7 April 1973)
Rugby World Cup Sevens
Appearances8 (First in 1993)
Best resultChampions (2001, 2013, 2018)
Websitehttps://www.allblacks.com/teams/all-blacks-sevens/
New Zealand national rugby sevens team at the 2009 Hong Kong Sevens

The team played for the first time at the 1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament.

History edit

World Sevens Series edit

The All Blacks Sevens have won 14 of the 24 World Rugby Sevens Series, and have been the most successful team in the history of the world series. They won the first six series between 1999–2004, before placing 4th in the 2005 series, and then later winning back to back series again in the 2006–2007 seasons. In 2008, the team placed 4th for the second time, and were runners-up for the first ever time in 2009. In the years of 2010–2013, the All Blacks Sevens had another period of success by winning all 4 of those series, before going onto have 5 straight seasons without winning a series between 2014–2018, which saw them come in 3rd place a total of 4 times and placed 4th once, which is also the third time that they have placed 4th in a world series. In 2019, the team won its first series again since 2013, and it was followed by a Covid-19 disrupted 2020–21 season, which was then followed by a disappointing 2021–22 series, that saw them come in 8th place, which was the lowest that the team has ever placed in any of the World Sevens Series. The team won its 14th World Series title on the 13th of May 2023, wrapping up the 2022–23 season, after beating France in the semi finals of the Toulouse tournament, and wrapping up the series due to a points difference gap being greater than the 2nd placed Argentina side. Despite an inconsistent start to the season, the All Blacks Sevens ended up finishing in 3rd place in the 2023–24 season, and winning the last 2 legs of the regular season.

Summer Olympic Games edit

The All Blacks Sevens have only been in 2 tournaments at the Summer Olympics, but have failed to obtain a Gold Medal from either competitions. In 2016, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Fiji before finishing in 5th place by beating Argentina (17–14) in the 5th place final. In 2020, they improved from the previous tournament and made it to the Grand Final but they were beaten by Fiji once again by (27–12). This caused them to finish the tournament in 2nd place due to being runners-up by losing in the final.

Rugby World Cup Sevens edit

New Zealand have won 3 Sevens Rugby World Cups. Their first appearance was in the 1993 tournament which was held in Scotland. They were knocked out in the quarter-finals by the eventual winners England (21–12) before finishing in 7th place. In 1997, they placed 3rd after they were beaten in the semi-finals by South Africa (31–7). In 2001, they won their first World Cup by beating Australia (31–12), and would also make the final again in 2005 but went on to lose to Fiji (29–19). In 2009, they lost to Wales in the quarter-finals (15–14) and would finish in 5th place. They then would go on to win the next two World Cups in 2013 and 2018 by beating England in both tournaments (33–0) and (33–12), to become the first team in history to go back to back in consecutive tournaments. In 2022, they lost to Fiji in the final once again by (27–12), and finished runners-up for the second time in their World Cup history.

Commonwealth Games edit

New Zealand have found the most success in the Commonwealth Games Sevens Series by winning 5 out of the 7 Tournaments. They won in 1998 by beating Fiji in the final (21–12), won in 2002 by winning against Fiji again (33–15), beat England in the 2006 Final (29–21), before beating Australia in the final in 2010 (24–17) and would go on to beat Fiji for the 3rd consecutive time in the final (14–0). In 2014, they were runners-up after losing to England (12–17) in the final and came in 3rd place after losing to Fiji (14–19) in the semi-finals in the 2022 tournament.

Oceania Sevens edit

The All Blacks sevens have been the Oceania Sevens Champions twice. In 2022 after having the best round-robin record of (5–1), they secured the title. In 2023, they retained their title after defeating Samoa (24–19) in the Final. They have been runners-up 4 times, the first being in 2014 by losing to Fiji in the final (5–21), the second time was in 2017 when they lost to Fiji again in the final (0–26), the third time was in 2018, when they lost to Fiji again for the 3rd straight final (12–17), and the 4th time would be by having the 2nd best round-robin record in 2021 (4–2), behind Fiji who had a better record (6–0), and they would also finish the 2019 competition in 7th place.

Records edit

World Sevens Series edit

New Zealand have won the World Rugby Sevens Series a record 14 times. New Zealand were particularly dominant in the early years of the Series, winning the first six series.

SeasonPosition
1999–20001st
2000–011st
2001–021st
2002–031st
2003–041st
2004–051st
2005–064th
2006–071st
2007–081st
2008–094th
2009–102nd
2010–111st
2011–121st
2012–131st
2013–141st
2014–153rd
2015–163rd
2016–174th
2017–183rd
2018–193rd
2019–201st
2021DNP
2021–228th
2022–231st
2023–243rd
Total14 Titles

Summer Olympic Games edit

New Zealand have competed in 2 Summer Olympics Sevens Tournaments but have failed to win a Gold Medal in both competitions.

Olympic Games History
2020Pool stage  New Zealand 50 – 5  South KoreaWin
Pool stage  New Zealand 35 – 14  ArgentinaWin
Pool stage  New Zealand 14 – 12  AustraliaWin
Quarter-finals  New Zealand 21 – 10  CanadaWin
Semi-finals  New Zealand 29 – 7  Great BritainWin
Final  New Zealand 12 – 27  FijiLoss

Rugby World Cup Sevens edit

New Zealand is tied with Fiji for the most Rugby Sevens World Cups with each team having 3 titles.

YearRoundPositionPldWLD
1993Quarterfinals7th8620
1997Semifinals3rd4310
2001Final1st8800
2005Final2nd8710
2009Quarterfinals5th4310
2013Final1st6600
2018Final1st4400
2022Final2nd4310
Total3 Titles8/8464060

Commonwealth Games edit

New Zealand is the most successful rugby sevens team at the Commonwealth Games. They have won five of the seven Commonwealth Games tournaments so far, and have finished second once. The team have only lost 2 matches at the Commonwealth Games, losing to South Africa in the final of the 2014 tournament and losing to Fiji in the semi-finals in the 2022 tournament.

YearRoundPositionPldWLD
1998Finals1st6600
2002Finals1st6600
2006Finals1st6600
2010Finals1st6600
2014Finals2nd6510
2018Finals1st5500
2022Bronze Final3rd6510
Total5 Titles7/7413920

Oceania Sevens edit

New Zealand have won the Oceania Sevens twice, while they have been runners-up 4 times and also came in 7th place in the 2019 tournament.

YearRoundPosition
2008Did not compete
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014Finals2nd
2015Did not compete
2016
2017Finals2nd
2018Finals2nd
20197th Place Final7th
2021Round-robin2nd
2022Round-robin1st
2023Finals1st
Total2 Titles7/15

Players edit

Current squad edit

The following players have been selected to represent New Zealand during the 2023–24 SVNS tournament.

Squad Updated to: 24 May 2024

Next Event: Madrid Sevens 31 May–2 June

PlayerPositionDate of birth (age)Matches PlayedClub/province
Sam DicksonForward (1989-10-28) 28 October 1989 (age 34)346Unattached
Scott CurryForward (1988-05-17) 17 May 1988 (age 36)295Unattached
Brady RushForward (1999-04-24) 24 April 1999 (age 25)113Northland
Leroy CarterBack (1999-02-24) 24 February 1999 (age 25)104Bay of Plenty
Tepaea Cook-SavageBack (2001-02-08) 8 February 2001 (age 23)66Waikato
Moses LeoBack (1997-08-11) 11 August 1997 (age 26)73North Harbour
Akuila RokolisoaBack (1995-07-26) 26 July 1995 (age 28)163Unattached
Cody VaiBack (2004-02-25) 25 February 2004 (age 20)47Bay of Plenty
Regan WareBack (1994-08-07) 7 August 1994 (age 29)275Unattached
Dylan Collier(c)Back (1991-04-27) 27 April 1991 (age 33)301Waikato
Andrew KnewstubbBack (1995-09-14) 14 September 1995 (age 28)157Unattached
Tone Ng ShiuBack (1994-05-26) 26 May 1994 (age 30)190Unattached
Joe WebberBack (1993-08-27) 27 August 1993 (age 30)237Bay of Plenty

Records and statistics edit

Player records edit

The following shows leading career New Zealand players based on performance in the World Rugby Sevens Series. Players in bold are still active.

Awards edit

Several New Zealand players have won or been nominated for the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year award. The following table shows the players who have been nominated for the award at least twice and won the award at least once.

World Rugby Player of the Year
PlayerWinsNominations
Tim Mikkelson1 (2013)3 (2011, 2013, 2014)
Tomasi Cama Jr.1 (2012)2 (2011, 2012)
DJ Forbes1 (2008)2 (2007, 2008)
Afeleke Pelenise1 (2007)1 (2007)
Orene Ai'i1 (2005)1 (2005)
Scott Curry01 (2021)
Frank Halai01 (2012)
Amasio Valence01 (2005)

Coaches edit

Past coaches edit

NameYears
Gordon Tietjens1994–2016

See also edit

References edit

External links edit