NEW ZEALAND HAVE come under threat from various hordes in the past four seasons in the IRB Sevens. First it was Fiji, then Australia, followed by South Africa and lastly England. The Kiwis have stopped the barbarians at the gate - but only just. Will they be able to do it once again and win their fifth successive IRB Sevens crown this year? Or will England, proud World Cup winners of the 15s code, broaden their world domination by grabbing the sevens title, too?
An indication as to what might pan out when the 2003-04 season ends will be seen by Sunday when the fifth leg of the IRB Sevens ends in what should be another bruising battle for Cup spoils at the Hong Kong Stadium.
If New Zealand are in the final, then opponents will have missed out on a golden opportunity to close the gap on the leaders, and more importantly, the Kiwis would have cemented their position with the Hong Kong Sevens offering more points (since it is the only 24-team event in the eight-leg series) than other stops.
'You can win the series by not winning any leg of the series. But it would be great if we could win every tournament. And it is time that we started to win more finals,' warns New Zealand sevens guru Gordon Tietjens.
New Zealand have won only one tournament this season - the Wellington Sevens. The key to their success - they lead England by 16 points in the standings - is due to the fact they have contested all the other three finals, losing to South Africa (in Dubai), England (in George, South Africa) and Argentina (in Los Angeles).
Tietjens is in the process of reshaping a team that have lost sevens stalwarts such as Karl Te Nana and Craig de Goldi. Although the legendary Eric Rush is back for the first time this season, it is not easy to replace Te Nana and De Goldi, both of whom have captained the Kiwis in the past.