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New Zealand make short work of Samoa to kick off Wellington Sevens

The record books will show New Zealand opened their Pool C campaign at the Wellington Sevens with a comfortable 33-7 victory over Gordon Tietjens-coached Samoa.

But that task was made a lot simpler by Jordan Way's decision to award New Zealand captain Scott Curry an early try that wasn't.

Dominion Post reports Curry dropped the ball in the act of scoring, yet the referee opted to rule in the home skipper's favour. That set New Zealand off to exactly the start they would've hoped for and by halftime further tries to Sherwin Stowers and Curry again - all converted by Rocky Khan - gave them a commanding 21-0 lead.

"Yeah, I'll be working with him during training on how to actually put the ball [down] with your hand on top. But we'll take it, you get away with those sometimes," New Zealand interim co-coach Scott Waldrom joked of Curry's first try.

Tim Mikkelson and DJ Forbes added second half tries for New Zealand to seal an unexpectedly dominant win against a Samoan side people were expecting plenty from, under their new boss.

Tietjens coached New Zealand for 22 years and his presence was often a dominating one. Recording such a resounding victory over a side coached by him will have meant something to a few of the New Zealand players and their coaching staff.

"I was anxious about our guys getting a little bit too emotional [about the Tietjens factor] and switching off, but I'm really pleased that they just went out there and plated the way that we wanted to play and just focused on that," said Waldrom.

Sevens can look pretty unstructured to the rest of us, but Waldrom had a clear view of what he'd been after.

"I want them to create space and finish off the opportunities. Quite often we created three-on-twos and we finished them off half the time, but I think we can get a lot better at that."

The other sides in Pool C - France and the United States - played out an entertaining 21-21 draw in the match prior. France are next up for New Zealand before they bring the curtain down on day one against the USA.

"It was an interesting game and I'll certainly sit at the computer and go through that," Waldrom said of the other Pool C game so far.  "A draw certainly throws the cat among the pigeons in terms of who's going to beat who in the points for and against."

   
Source: Stuff.co
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