Rio Olympics 2016: Rio Sevens romp to opening win

New Zealand's Portia Woodman, runs with the ball during the women's rugby sevens match between New Zealand and Kenya. Photo / AP.

The New Zealand women's sevens rugby team has made a flying start to the Rio Olympics with Portia Woodman and Kayla McAlister the stand out figures.

Woodman, daughter of former All Black Kawhena Woodman, scored three tries in New Zealand's opening 52-0 victory over Kenya in their first pool match.

The side then backed up a couple of hours later to defeat Spain 31-5 in their second match with Woodman repeating her effort of scoring a try in the first minute of the game.

Woodman now has four tries from two matches as does McAlister, sister of former All Black Charlie. McAlister's swag included an eye-catching length of the field burst against Spain and she was also New Zealand's strongest player in contact, frequently offloading to team-mates.

New Zealand 's next game, against France tomorrow morning New Zealand time will decide who tops their pool.

In the opening match against the Kenyans, Sonny Bill Williams' sister went one up on her famous brother.

On a day where rugby returned to the Olympics for the first time in 92 years - and women's rugby appearing for the first time - Niall Williams scored one of the New Zealanders' eight tries in their strong performance. It meant she is on the scoreboard ahead of Sonny Bill in the Williams household boasting stakes. The men's tournament starts later this week.

McAlister's first try in the second pool match gave New Zealand a 12-0 lead at halftime against Spain.

Tyla Nathan-Wong then added a third shortly after the break, before Maria Casado scored for Spain - the first points New Zealand have conceded in 24 minutes of play.

Beyond McAlister, Woodman and Williams, New Zealand also scored tries through Huriana Manuel and Gayle Broughton in the first game.

Nathan-Wong showed she could be a vital cog by kicking five of six conversions and Kelly Brazier one of two.

New Zealand led 21-0 at halftime against the Kenyans.

In other matches, gold medal favourites Australia went one point better than New Zealand by trouncing Colombia 53-0, Britain defeated Brazil 29-3 and France won the opening match, downing Spain 24-7.