Hong Kong Sevens: New Zealand emerging from ruins of poor start to stand on cusp of immortality in sport’s spiritual home
- Having ousted crowd favourites and perennial finalists Fiji, All Blacks now face old foes Australia for place in the final
- Captain Dylan Collier says a lot of work went into turning around a disappointing start to world series year
New Zealand arrived at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens low on form and scrambling for confidence, but if any team had to shoot Bambi, it was always going to the dead-eyed All Blacks.
The Kiwis ousted crowd favourites Fiji, finalists in each of the past seven years, to set up a crackerjack semi-final meeting with Antipodean foes Australia on Sunday.
It seems almost cruel that the winners will have one more sizeable hurdle to mount, in the shape of either France or Ireland, to forever go down in history as reigning Hong Kong Stadium champions.
Neither of these teams would expect, nor want, any sympathy, however. New Zealand refused to feel sorry for themselves following a desperately disappointing tournament in Los Angeles last month.
Instead of navel-gazing, they rooted through every corner of their off-field methodology to try to revive a flagging aura.
“We had a good hard look at ourselves, and it [recovering form] was about discipline on and off the field,” Dylan Collier, the New Zealand captain, told the Post.