Dubai: Record 12-time Sevens World Series champions and five-time Dubai winners New Zealand will be looking to bounce back in Dubai this weekend after a disappointing start to the current season, according to Kiwi captain D.J. Forbes.
The All Blacks lost 31-7 to England in the cup quarter-finals of the Gold Coast in Australia in October, in round one of the current nine-stage series, which was eventually won by Dubai defending champions Fiji.
Forbes, however, hopes that come round two in Dubai this Friday and Saturday, New Zealand will fly under the radar to steal their sixth title with all the fanfare surrounding other teams.
“Hopefully people are too focused on Fiji and Samoa, who were the finalists at the Gold Coast, and we can just get on with our job and play a bit of footy,” said Forbes.
“That would be awesome [if we could fly under the radar] and I think it’s refreshing that people are looking at other teams as the ones to beat. But come game day, we know as soon as other countries see that black jersey and silver fern, they will lift their game to another level and spoil our party, so we will always have to be on top of our game.”
Forbes said making up for the disappointment of the Gold Coast was now a key priority this weekend.
“We are extremely confident,” he said. “Everyone knows what we can do when we are all on song and as I keep saying, at the Gold Coast we played five good games of footy. It was just that one game against England where we slipped up, they had a good game plan and stuck to it and we let them dictate a little bit too much. But we will definitely be keen as to bounce back and get our world series back on track.”
New Zealand are in a tough group with Samoa, Scotland and Japan in Pool B, and Forbes said if the Kiwis are to bounce back in Dubai, they will have to start well on Friday.
“It’s a tough pool and as far as we are concerned, if we want a chance of making the quarter-final of the cup we will have to do the business from day one. It’s a tough ask but we hope to set ourselves up for a good weekend.”
With the top four teams from this season’s overall series standings qualifying for rugby’s Olympic debut in 2016, every team is throwing extra funding at the sport. Although New Zealand have never finished outside the top four in 15 seasons since the series’ 1999/00 inception, Forbes warned now wasn’t the time to get complacent.
“I’d love to think that [it’s a formality],” he said. “But everyone will be going out to spoil the party this season. If everyone lifts their game when they play us it means we have to be that little more on top of our game.
“These are exciting times, if anything it’s the beauty of being an Olympic sport, with everyone competing at the highest level.
“Everyone will be lifting their game with the Olympic buzz and no one has anything to lose. But we are in the same boat as everyone else, we are going out to qualify for the Olympics. The boys will take it one tournament at a time and as far as we are concerned the focus is on the process, targeting events one-by-one, in the hope that qualification will take care of itself. It’s going to be a tough year but I’m sure the boys will do it.”
