Winning start for men's sevens

The New Zealand men’s seven team completed a 100 percent start to their Tokyo Olympic campaign with two victories on the opening day.

They began with an emphatic 50-5 win over Republic of Korea at the Tokyo Stadium, the New Zealanders running in eight tries to one, despite a fine effort by Jeong Yeon Sik.

The longer the game went, the more New Zealand’s domination increased. They led 14-5 at halftime and eased away through the second spell.

Co-captain Tim Mikkelson and William Warbrick bagged two tries apiece, with one each for Andrew Knewstubb, Etene Nanai-Seturo and Ngarohi McGarvey plus a penalty try.

Having finished fifth at the Rio Olympics, the men’s sevens are determined to get among the medals this time around.

Argentina, ranked seventh to New Zealand’s second were a tougher proposition in the later game and at halftime New Zealand led only 14-7 with tries from McGarvey and Sione Molia. However, New Zealand pulled away to win 35-14 in a performance which got better as it went on.

At 14-14 early in the second half, it was game on. But from there Zealand took charge, with further tries from Joe Weber, Mikkelson and Warbrick in the last action of the game.

Mikkelson said it was particularly pleasing to get past Argentina. "It was a pretty tough task to take on them," he said. "They're the form team and have won three tournaments around the world. They're dangerous."

He said the New Zealand team was feeling good. "There's a lot of belief and confidence. They've won the Comm Games, the World Cup and the world series. These young boys have no fear and it's awesome to play alongside them."

New Zealand’s  final pool A game is against sixth-ranked Australia tomorrow.