Koroi, Mikkelson ruled out

The New Zealand 7s team will be without playmaker Vilimoni Koroi and veteran forward Tim Mikkelson in tomor­row’s Canada Sevens tournament in Vancouver.

Coach Clark Laidlaw said Koroi and Mikkelson suffered injuries during the USA Sevens in Las Ve­gas and had to be dropped.

They have been replaced by Luke Masirewa and Kurt Baker.

“Tim is a mainstay of the team so playing without him is something no one wants but it gives guys a chance to step up, Dylan and Luke will have to play some big minutes so that’s great for them,” Laidlaw told vox.com.au.

“Losing a star play maker like Vili gives Andrew and Ngarohi a chance to play in that position, so we see it as an exciting oppor­tunity.”

The All Blacks Sevens will face Scotland, Russia and South Af­rica in Pool D and Laidlaw said the team is looking to show an im­provement on recent showings.

“It’s been frustrating the last couple of tournaments because we haven’t quite put a full game together.

“We tried to simplify things this week and create a really clear fo­cus for the team so we are expect­ing a good performance this week­end.

“We’ve played all these teams recently. We played Russia in Syd­ney and needed to play well to beat them, Scotland have troubled us and we are clear how we want to play against them. South Africa is the form team and the strongest squad so that’s a great challenge for us.”

New Zealand: Scott Curry (Cap­tain), Luke Masirewa, Trael Joass, Joe Ravouvou, Dylan Collier, Nga­rohi McGarvey-Black, Sam Dick­son, Andrew Knewstubb, Regan Ware, Kurt Baker, Joe Webber, Etene Nanai-Seturo, *Sione Molia

Edited by Grace Narayan

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