New Zealand completed their pool assignments by barely raising a sweat at the Hong Kong sevens rugby tournament last night.
They registered their third successive pool D victory by beating Kenya 50-14 to book their passage into tomorrow's quarterfinals. New Zealand, who had beaten Italy 41-5 and Russia54-0, scored 22 tries in pool play while conceding three.
Kenya never stood a chance from the moment New Zealand captain and Waitemata clubman DJ Forbes was put into space on the left after his teammates used the full width of the field. Another seven tries followed, including a brace to halfback Nigel Hunt, who also kicked five conversions.
Against Russia, New Zealand produced an impressive display in which mistakes were kept to a minimum. New Zealand led 26-0 at halftime and scored eight tries, including two each to Zar Lawrence and Tomasi Cama. Cama converted all but one of the tries for a personal haul of 24 points.
Having beaten Italy in their opening match, New Zealand upped the tempo against the Russians and were helped by long-range tries to Lawrence and Adam Thomson, with Thomson's effort carrying him 85m.
New Zealand began the tournament joint leaders of the IRB world sevens series with Fiji.
