New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens today named a 12-man squad for the Adelaide leg of the IRB sevens world series next weekend.
Tietjens has named a largely unchanged squad from the Wellington and Las Vegas tournaments, with Bay of Plenty's Toby Arnold coming in to replace Counties Manukau speedster Sherwin Stowers, who is ruled out with an ankle injury. Bay of Plenty's Solomon King was also unavailable for selection due to injury.
Waikato's Save Tokula will travel with the team after successfully appealing a six- match ban he received at the Las Vegas tournament. The ban was reduced to four matches on appeal, meaning Tokula will miss only the first two pool play matches in Adelaide, as he had already stood down for two games in Las Vegas.
Tietjens said preparations for Adelaide were going well.
"We had a great start to the season but the team were disappointed with their performances in the last two tournaments, and we know we need to play at a higher level and improve our accuracy to be successful in Adelaide and Hong Kong," Tietjens said.
New Zealand currently leads the series with two wins from four tournaments.
Following the Adelaide tournament, the team travel to Hong Kong for the sixth leg of the series on March 26-28. The final two legs are scheduled for London on May 22-23 and Edinburgh on May 29-30.
The New Zealand sevens team for Adelaide is: Kurt Baker (Taranaki), Tomasi Cama (Manawatu), DJ Forbes (Counties Manukau), Paul Grant (Otago), Tim Mikkelson (Waikato), Zar Lawrence (Bay of Plenty), Fritz Lee (Counties Manukau), Lote Raikabula (Manawatu), Ben Souness (Taranaki), Toby Arnold (Bay of Plenty), Nafi Tuitavake (North Harbour), Save Tokula (Waikato).
