SBW & co. commit to sevens

The All Blacks Sevens will go into the new season with the services of All Blacks Sonny Bill Williams and Liam Messam and exciting young loose forwards Ardie Savea and Akira Ioane.

The four, along with Auckland’s Ben Lam, are new faces in the squad from last season. Ioane, Lam, Messam and Savea, have previously pulled on the sevens jersey.

A core of sevens specialists from the 2014/15 season were also named in the initial training squad for 2015/16 announced by coach Gordon Tietjens.

Scott Curry, a regular member in recent seasons, will captain the side following the decision of long serving leader DJ Forbes to step down from the role to focus on his sevens game. Tietjens said he was very pleased Curry had accepted the new role.

“He has big shoes to fill as DJ has been an outstanding leader. We’ve always been impressed with Scott’s maturity on and off the field. He led the team well last season in Las Vegas when DJ was injured and is well equipped to handle the demands of the job. He’s a great player, experienced and very skilled.”

“Scott will be leading a core of very experienced players who have served the team well in recent seasons. It’s also really pleasing to have some recent All Blacks Sevens players on board again. Akira Ioane, Ben Lam and Ardie Savea made big impacts in their time with the team and we welcome them back.”