A new era beckons for the All Blacks Sevens with three debutants named in their side to start the 2024/25 SVNS Series in Dubai next week.
Coach Tomasi Cama has rewarded Bunnings Warehouse NPC form in selecting Oli Mathis (Waikato) and Sofai Maka (North Harbour) for their first international sevens tournament, while Joey Taumateine graduates from the New Zealand Men’s Sevens Development team.
Experience comes in the form of Captain Dylan Collier, Joe Webber and Sione Molia, all who have more than 50 caps for the team.
Cama said the debutants all have exciting potential.
“As coaches it excites us to bring young people in and help with their growth. They have to learn fast, but that is all part of the excitement.”
Oli Mathis starred in the New Zealand Schools team in 2023, before an impressive debut season for Waikato.
“We had a training run against Hamilton Boys’ High School last year and that is where we first saw Oli. He went on to have a great season for Waikato, so we brought him in to train with us. He is eager to learn and loves sevens so we are excited with his speed and physicality, what he will bring to the team.”
Sofai Maka has played NPC for both Auckland and North Harbour and previously played in the Blues Under 20s.
“Sofai has the potential to become a great sevens player. We saw in the NPC he makes a lot of line breaks, scores a lot of tries; he understands the game well and with a few injuries in our midfield he gets his opportunity.”
Joey Taumateine was a member of the New Zealand Under 18 Sevens team last year, and earlier this year travelled to France with the New Zealand Men’s Development team.
“I’ve been lucky enough to spend a bit of time in our sevens schools’ environment the last few years Joey is the most recent of a number of players who have come through that pathway. He has great speed and footwork for a prop which will be his point of difference.”
Another new face to the All Blacks Sevens is assistant coach Willie Rickard, who is actually returning, having played eight tournaments in the black jersey between 2006 and 2009.
“We played together, and my main memory of Willie is he works hard. His work ethic is what sevens is all about, especially in this team. His ability to teach is going to accelerate the growth and learning of our players and he has a real mana about the way he approaches his role,” said Cama.
With the team set to take the field without the stalwarts of Tim Mikkelson, Scott Curry or Sam Dickson, Cama said now is the time to really go back to what the All Blacks Sevens is all about.
“We’ve talked a lot about connecting to our DNA. This team is about hard work, that will be the foundation that allows us to play a brand of rugby we all love; exciting, free playing, unstructured. That’s what we want to go out there to do.”
The All Blacks Sevens team is:
Dylan Collier (c)
Jayden Keelan
Andrew Knewstubb
Oli Mathis (debut)
Sofai Maka (debut)
Ngarohi McGarvey-Black
Sione Molia
Tone Ng Shiu
Lewis Ormond
Brady Rush
Joey Taumateine (debut)
Codemeru Vai
Joe Webber
Unavailable due to injury: Regan Ware, Amanaki Nicole, Kitiona Vai, Roderick Solo, Akuila Rokolisoa, Xavier Tito-Harris
