Sevens: Men's loss a reality check for women: coach

Bay of Plenty player Morgan Morrow is tackled by Selica Winiata during New Zealand Women's sevens training at Blake Park. Photo / John Borren

The All Blacks Sevens' shock loss to Canada in Tokyo over the weekend is being seen as a timely wake-up call to the New Zealand Women's team.

Women's head coach Sean Horan says it is always a reality check whenever a New Zealand team lose.

"We wear the badge, we wear the same colour, so it is a huge motivation to see that the guys after x-number of tournaments have only won one but are still in that top three," Horan said.

"The learning is you can't take anything for granted. Everyone gets up to play New Zealand. There are half a dozen teams now that can upset us. We have been pushed this year against Russia twice, Canada, Australia, France and USA, plus England. So some may say we are well ahead and so much better, but we have been pushed by all of those sides at any given stage over those three tournaments."

Tauranga resident Horan's team are comfortably on top of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series leader board after winning the first three tournaments in Dubai, Sao Paulo and Atlanta.

"They were three different wins, which is satisfying. We had to dig really deep and tough it out in Dubai with a couple of key injuries, and our pre-season fitness in getting back into the series was missing," Horan said.

"I really enjoyed that. We started to hit our straps in San Paulo and we dealt with the heat very, very well, and had the confidence and mettle to win there against a very good Aussie side. The way we won in Atlanta against America, I think we took it to another level."

Horan and his team have had another successful week-long camp at Mount Maunganui in preparation for the fourth round, to be played in Langford, Canada on April 18.

"The quality and the competition have been the standouts this week," he said. "The internal competition for places now is an evolution of the group. We had 16 fully fit girls to call upon this week and we still have some great girls that are injured, waiting to come back in."

Schedule
•Canada Sevens April 18-19
•Westhills Stadium, Langford, Canada
•New Zealand playing schedule, pool play, April 18, NZ times
•7.06am NZ v Fiji, 10.06am NZ v Spain, 1.06pm NZ v England; Finals - April 19

New Zealand team:
Honey Hireme (Waikato), Carla Hohepa (Waikato), Hazel
Tubic (Auckland), Charlotte Scanlon (Auckland), Sarah Goss
(c) (Manawatu), Gayle Broughton (Taranaki), Tyla Nathan-
Wong (Auckland), Kelly Brazier (Bay of Plenty), Michaela
Blyde (Taranaki), Selica Winiata (Auckland), Kayla McAlister
(Auckland).