Paris Preview: New Zealand Men's Sevens aims for Gold
The New Zealand Men's Sevens are looking to go one better in Paris and capture their first Olympic gold medal. Adam Julian previews the tournament.
Olympics History
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, played, refereed and promoted football rugby as it was called in his day. De Coubertin admired the ethos of the game, its moral values as well as the physical and mental skills required to play it.
Fifteens rugby was included at the Paris Olympics in 1900 with the hosts claiming the gold medal. Rugby wasn’t included in 1904 in St Louis but was on the programme of the 1908, 1920 and 1924 Games.
USA won two gold medals, including a 17-3 victory over France at Stade Colombes in Paris on 18 May 1924. Before a strongly partisan crowd of about 50,000, the match descended into chaos when dissatisfied French fans threw bottles and rocks onto the field and started brawling in the stands. At the final whistle, French fans invaded the pitch, forcing police, and French players and officials, to protect the Americans who had to be removed from the field under police protection.
At the 121st IOC Session held in Copenhagen in October 2009, it was decided to include rugby in the Olympic programme for Rio in 2016, with a men’s and a women’s rugby 7s tournament, each with 12 teams.
Fiji won the first gold medal defeating Great Britain 43-7 in the final. The result happened just months after Fiji was shattered by tropical cyclone Winston, which killed 44 people. The Guardian reported.
“All too often it was gallant red men against rampaging white giants. How ironic, then, that the master coach who has brought order and rigour to the Harlem Globetrotters creative chaos is an Englishman. Ben Ryan fetched up in Fiji only after becoming disillusioned with Twickenham politics and being repeatedly overlooked for the Premiership club jobs his intelligence and ability should have demanded. When they make the feelgood Hollywood movie about Fiji’s golden generation, as they probably should, the role played by the flame-haired Ryan will be key. Damian Lewis should keep his phone on.”
In August 2016, Ryan was given the Fijian name Ratu Peni Rayani Latianara, along with three acres of land in Serua.
New Zealand Men's Sevens History
New Zealand had a disappointing campaign in Rio in 2016. Despite the presence of All Blacks brothers Akira and Rieko Ioane, as well as Sonny Bill Williams and fabled captain DJ Forbes, New Zealand bombed and finished ninth.
Tokyo was a much stronger campaign. New Zealand beat South Korea (50-5), Argentina (35-14), Australia (14-12), Canada (21-10) and Great Britain (29-7) enroute to the final which they lost to a stacked Fiji 27-12. Fiji’s dazzling team included Jerry Tuawai, Meli Derenalagi, Semi Radradra and Napolioni Bolaca.
New Zealand Men have scored the joint-second most tries (42) and second-most points (269) of any team in Olympic history. Their 25 tries at Tokyo 2020 were the most of any team, and fell just one short of Fiji’s tournament record of 26 set in 2016. Scott Curry is New Zealand’s all-time leading Olympics try scorer.
New Zealand Men's Sevens Prospects
New Zealand Men finished third in the SVNS standings after producing a strong second-half performance to the season, earning 66% of their total competition points between Vancouver and Singapore after placing inside the top three just once across the opening three events.
New Zealand reached the Cup final at three of the last four events, in Vancouver, Hong Kong and Singapore, completing the Cup title double across the Asian tournament fortnight.
The All Black Sevens suffered shocking misfortune with injures, but have largely overcome that suffering and have a settled squad for Paris.
Half of the dozen players selected won silver at Tokyo 2020. Andrew Knewstubb, Dylan Collier, Scott Curry, Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, and Regan Ware all return, while travelling reserves Sione Molia and Joe Webber were also part of their squad in Tokyo
Akuila Rokolisoa (167 SVNS matches, 89 tries, 821 points) is back as key play maker and prolific goalkicker.
Tepaea Cook-Savage featured in 41 of a possible 44 SVNS matches. He created the most tries and scored eight himself.
Pool Play Opponents
Japan – Japan is the lowest ranked of New Zealand's opponents having finished ninth in the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in 2024. They won six out of 15 games and only qualified for the Olympics after winning the Asia Rugby Sevens Qualifying tournament in Osaka. It should be noted Japan was fourth at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and beat New Zealand 14-12 in pool play.
Players to watch are Shotaro Tsuoka who scored a team-high 13 tries on the Challenger series this season, the third-most of any player. Kippei Taninaka scored Japan’s only hat-trick of the season, crossing three times against Tonga in their 28-5 victory in Dubai. On defence, he made a team-high 30 tackles, Moeki Fukushi led the Japanese attack this season making a team-high 45 carries.
Japan have never beaten New Zealand on the SVNS series, losing all 22 matches since their first meeting in Brisbane in 2000. New Zealand have held Japan to seven points or less in a game in 17 of those 22 meetings on the series.
Ireland - Ireland was second in the SVNS standings, but didn’t win a tournament. New Zealand beat Ireland 17-14 in an epic Hong Kong final. At the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens, Ireland won a bronze medal.
This Irish is knocking on the door big time. They only won 26 of their 45 matches in SVNS but 14 of their 19 defeats were by less than a converted try. Ireland has seven survivors from their Tokyo 2020 Olympics squad with Gavin Mullin, Harry McNulty, Hugo Lennox, Jordan Conroy, Mark Roche, Terry Kennedy, and Jack Kelly all returning. Kennedy is a real danger man. He has scored 110 tries in 145 SVNS matches and has previously been crowed World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year.
South Africa – Winners of the World Seves Series four times, South Africa finished seventh in the SVNS 2024 standings after failing to progress past the Cup quarter-finals following their Cup title success in the opening round in Dubai. They were the only team ranked outside of the top five at season’s end to win an event
South Africa has four players returning from Tokyo 2020 in Selvyn Davids, Impi Visser, Zain Davids and Siviwe Soyizwapi, while Rosko Specman returns to their Olympic squad after winning bronze at Rio 2016. Travelling reserve Ronald Brown is also a survivor from their Tokyo 2020 campaign.
In the Madrid Sevens South Africa was beaten by New Zealand 33-24 with three players yellow carded. Still, South Africa managed to score a try with five against seven.
Dangerous Contenders
Argentina - Argentina won the SVNS league and won more games (36/44) than any team this season. The Pumas scored 51% of their tries from set-piece, their main try source and the highest ratio of any team. They also poached a quarter of their restarts, meaning they attained more crucial possession than most.
Gun Marcos Moneta returns for the first time since breaking his fibula in Hong Kong. Argentina won 10 of their 14 games without him (71%), compared to 26 of 30 with him on the field this season (87%). Moneta has scored 129 tries in 144 SVNS matches.
Argentina won bronze in Tokyo and are experienced across the board. Germán Schulz was the only player to play all 44 games for Argentina this season. He made a team-high 55 tackles on defence. Joaquin Pellandini and Matias Osadczuuk are others of real repute.
Head coach Santiago Gómez Cora (230 World Series tries) has been at the helm of Argentina since the beginning of the 2013-14 series, taking the team to their inaugural League Winners title this season, and seven of their nine all-time Cup titles. This will be his third Olympic Games as coach.
France – Tournament hosts France ended a 19-year Cup title drought when they won the Los Angeles Sevens– their first since Paris in 2005. The French then conquered Madrid to be crowned SVNS Grand Final champions.
France scored the second-most tries of any team this season with 136 and are headlined by superstar Antoine Dupont, arguably the best rugby player on the planet.
The 2024 SVNS Rookie of the Year scored seven tries and made eight try assists across his 15 matches played in the season. He returns to Stade de France as part of the national team for the first time since Les Bleus’ RWC 2023 quarter-final loss to South Africa. He has played 25 test matches for France at this venue, enjoying 18 wins.
France is not a one-man team. Jordan Sepho was France’s top try-scorer in SVNS with 16 – only six of them were directly assisted by a team-mate. He was the only player to play every game for France this season. Rayan Rebbadj is a tackling trojan and made a team-high 66 tackles.
Fiji – The 2016 and 2020 Olympic champions have won all 12 Olympic matches and scored a record 50 tries but are in historically poor form.
Fiji won a credible 27 of 43 SVNS matches but finished sixth in the overall standings after failing to make a Cup final for the first time in their history.
Fiji have not won a Cup title at any location since Toulouse on the 2022 World Series, 22 tournaments ago. This has now surpassed their previous longest Cup title drought after playing 21 events between Brisbane in 2003 and Dubai in 2005 without lifting a trophy.
Still, Fiji has three survivors in their squad from Tokyo 2020 – Jerry Tuwai, Iosefo Masi and Waisea Nacuqu.
Tuwai is a Sevens genius with two Olympic gold medals and an array of tricks no player had. After a long spell on the sideline, Tuwai is back in shape named in the Madrid tournament Dream Team, the last event before the Olympics.
Fiji used 29 different players in SVNS, with Joseva Talacolo their most consistent with 38 games played from a team total of 43 matches.
Check out the full schedule HERE.