Wales wilted in the heat as New Zealand surged home to book a Commonwealth Games sevens rugby semifinal with a 31-10 win today.
Rocked on to the back foot early in the quarterfinal, New Zealand broke out of their half for the first time in the sixth minute to score through Kurt Baker and take a 7-5 lead into halftime.
An animated halftime message from coach Gordon Tietjens seemed to do the trick as the three-time defending gold medallists bounced back to score four second-half tries.
New Zealand will play England in the semifinals later today after the English eliminated Samoa 7-5 in a tense quarterfinal boilover.
It was disastrous result for the Samoans, who were dominant in winning this year's sevens world series but haven't been at their best here, having lost to Kenya in pool play yesterday.
New Zealand's semifinal is a rematch of the Games final at Melbourne four years ago and brings together the two most prolific tryscoring teams at this tournament, with New Zealand having scored 29 times and England 22.
The other quarterfinals pitted Kenya against Australia and South Africa against Scotland.
After cruising in for 141 points against Canada, Guyana and Scotland in pool play, New Zealand took time to adjust to the challenge of Wales, the surprise World Cup winners last year.
The Welsh crossed in the fifth minute through Ifan Evans, whose 40m burst to score was just reward for their tight defensive efforts.
New Zealand struck back through the first of two tries to Baker, who took advantage of a half-break and offload from Ben Smith.
It was one-way track after halftime as Smith, Baker and Hosea Gear crossed, mostly through turnover ball as the New Zealanders muscled up at the tackle.
It was clear they wanted to get the ball into Wellington winger Gear's hands as often as possible although he was well contained.
Indeed, he looked tired when he was stood up by Welsh opposite Aaron Shingler for their second try near the end.
The final say went to New Zealand when reserve halfback Toby Arnold pounced on a loose ball for their sixth try.
Tim Mikkelson, who injured his calf yesterday, wasn't used while Tietjens also didn't employ the raw pace of Sherwin Stowers.
All Blacks winger Zac Guildford didn't get on until late, emphasising the depth at New Zealand's disposal.
