Cape Town sevens preview

Players of New Zealand team enter the tunnel during day two of the Emirates Dubai Rugby Sevens. Photo / Getty Images.

New Zealand are languishing in eighth position on the HSBC Sevens World Series standings as they contemplate tomorrow's second leg in Cape Town.

They are placed near some previous sevens heavyweights or contenders such as USA (9), Samoa (10), Argentina (11), and Kenya (12). But they lie behind some teams who do not feature highly on the usual standings: Wales (4), Scotland (6) and France (7).

In fairness, they are often slow starters in the December tournaments, as they come off very short preparation. The union opts to forego lead-up tournaments such as the Oceania Sevens. Co-coach Tomasi Cama remarked as much earlier in the week.

But there should be concern at the manner on which New Zealand lost three of their games in Dubai, notably the 40-0 whitewash by South Africa in the Cup quarter-finals.

The Blitzbokke are proving that South African rugby is not all doom and gloom by winning the Cup final from Fiji.

The New Zealand tackling was ineffectual and the passing shoddy in that game and their other losses, and surely that cannot be attributed solely to lack of time together.

Bay of Plenty first five Dan Hollinshead has been called into the travelling reserves after Beaudein Waaka sustained an ankle injury in Dubai.

Co-coach Scott Waldrom said the Cape Town tournament offered the opportunity to further develop the team's game-plan and give players important game time.

"We are continuing to develop the players and new structures this season that will service us better in the future. This week we have focused on improving our accuracy and understanding of these new structures heading into Cape Town.

"In Dubai we started to see some improvements, but we lacked consistency and high level game time experience. This weekend we should see an improved performance and I believe this team is good enough to win if we get it right."

Captain Scott Curry said he wants to see more focus and dedication from the team.

"We want to step up our game this weekend. We learnt a lot from Dubai and we have been working hard this week to turn those learnings into an improved performance.

"The newer players got the chance to have big match experience last weekend. The combination of that experience and more time together to bed in our game-plan should see us do a lot better this week."

In 2015 at the corresponding tournament, New Zealand lost three games, bowing out at the Plate semifinal stage to USA.

NZ pool matches
Saturday December 10
10:59am (9:59pm Saturday December 10 NZT) v Argentina
2:20pm (1:20am Sunday December 11 NZT) v Canada
6:03pm (5:03am Sunday December 11 NZT) v England
Sunday December 11: finals day

All Blacks Sevens squad for Cape Town: Scott Curry (captain), Tim Mikkelson, Antonio Kiri Kiri, DJ Forbes, Dylan Collier, Iopu Iopu-Aso, Rocky Khan, Sherwin Stowers, Jonathan Ruru, Isaac Te Tamaki, Sione Molia, Junior Ngaluafe; travelling reserves: Billy Ropiha, Dan Hollinshead