Amasio Valence on his way to scoring against Canada. David Rogers / Getty Images
DUBAI - New Zealand will play Fiji in tonight's quarter finals at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens after going through pool play unbeaten overnight.
Gordon Tietjens' side struggled to beat Canada 24-7 in their opening pool match, but then thrashed the Arabian Gulf 60-nil and France 45-12 to top pool
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Fiji suffered a shock 21-7 loss to Samoa and that result sets up a repeat of the World Cup final, in the quarter finals in Dubai.
New Zealand scored ten tries in the rout over the Arabian Gulf with sevens newcomers Hayden Pedersen with two, Alfred Pelenise and Lifeimi Mafi among the try scorers.
Tietjens used the opportunity in the first two games to give the entire squad a run before fielding his strongest lineup against France.
Amasio Valence was the star of the show, scoring twice and playing a hand in three others.
Valence felt New Zealand was timing its run just right heading into day two.
"We were slow starting against Canada but really played well in our last two games, the youngsters like Zar Lawrence are really coming on, and so the signs are good for the future."
But Valence admitted he was approaching the Fiji game with some trepidation.
"They beat us here last year and in the World Cup final in Hong Kong so we have a point to prove against them," Valence said.
All Black fullback Mils Muliaina was an interested spectator and visited the New Zealand changing room after the Canada match.
Muliaina has indicated he wants to play for New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games and has left Tietjens with a big selection headache with five players vying for one place in the Chiefs Super 14 franchise.
England were the most impressive team on day one, recording big wins over Kenya 52-7, Uganda 48-nil and beating Australia in the final match of the day.
The New Zealand side has no injuries and Tietjens felt the side had improved as the day went on but he added a warning ahead of the quarter final.
"Its danger time against Fiji, when they are wounded they come out firing and they always lift when they play us. Samoa hasn't done us any favours."
So the quarter final lineup has South Africa against Australia, Fiji meeting New Zealand, England against Argentina and Samoa against France.
- NZPA
