Rugby: Sevens side must glow on the GC without top stars

Clark Laidlaw admits New Zealand have been left behind by other sevens outfits.

The New Zealand men's sevens team will have to make do without any All Blacks at next year's Commonwealth Games.

And they will only have access to a selection of Super Rugby stars a month before the Gold Coast event, new coach Clark Laidlaw has confirmed.

Although the All Blacks had the option of making themselves available for last year's Rio Olympics, they are unavailable for selection for the Commonwealth Games in April.

Laidlaw, however, told Newstalk ZB's Tony Veitch he believes he has the group of players to win gold in Australia.

"The top All Blacks and Super Rugby players won't be released for the Commonwealth Games which we're comfortable with because it's in the middle of Super Rugby," Laidlaw said.

"It's a different time of year than what traditionally the Games have been. So traditionally they have been able to get access to top Super Rugby players," Laidlaw said.

"What we have got is a long list that comprise some Super Rugby players as well as guys we've got on our radar for contracts this season and obviously the current contracted groups."

Scotland-born Laidlaw, who was appointed as veteran Gordon Tietjens' successor in November last year, admits there's still some work to do to get to know the players at his disposal.

The team have just started pre-season training at their base in Mt Maunganui, ahead of the first legs of the World Series in Dubai and Cape Town in December.

Laidlaw is looking forward to improving on a disappointing 2016/2017 season -- their worst in almost a decade.

New Zealand finished fourth overall in the World Series, couldn't make a single final in 10 tournaments and was knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the Rio Games in August.

"I've not even coached a lot of our players yet, so we've got to spend some time with the group we've got and make sure we give them the best possible opportunity to be as good as they can be," Laidlaw said.

"And then if we get through the next two or three months and we don't think we've got a team capable of going to the Games and winning, then we've obviously got this list of players that have been put in for the administration side of things. So they're available to be selected later in the year."

He admits New Zealand have been left behind by other sevens outfits such as South Africa in recent years.

"The perception maybe in this country is that we were going really well because we were still winning. I think the last couple years, it's probably been a byproduct of the last few years the way the sevens game has changed around the world and potentially we've been a little bit slow to react to that," Laidlaw said.

"Hopefully that's in the past and we can rebound and we can start focusing forward now.

"The exciting part now is that we've realised where we need to improve and what areas we think we can improve," he said.

•Full Laidlaw interview on Newstalk ZB at 3pm.