“I’m not really sure how we’ll go, we’ll just have to wait and see”. Those were the words of New Zealand coaches Tomasi Cama and Cory Sweeney ahead of the opening round of HSBC SVNS in Dubai last weekend.

Turns out they went all right.

Few would have predicted a kiwi double in the desert to start the season. While the Black Ferns Sevens have set the standard in the women’s game, Australia had dominated the opening round for the past five years — and they reached the final undefeated. 

Given New Zealand’s significant wobble in losing to USA on day one, with their key players having had little to no pre-season preparation and fielding one of their most inexperienced teams in recent memory, the manner of their 29-14 victory over their great rivals in the final was somewhat surprising. 

The All Blacks Sevens, meanwhile, seemed even less-likely finalists going into Dubai. Coming off their worst-ever season where they finished seventh overall and only reached two finals, with three debutants in the line-up and injury to Regan Ware on the eve of the tournament, expectations were relatively low. Instead, they added to the desert black-out with a fine win over Australia in the decider, having seen off Fiji in the semi.

Questions about the men’s team among the New Zealand media, pundits and public have been many and loud. For coach Cama, the 2025 season was painful and has meant big changes and tough calls. 

Gone are the likes of Joe Webber, Amanaki Nicole, Lewis Ormond and Andrew Knewstubb (who’s picked up a Super Rugby contract), and in have come some young, fresh faces, plucked from the National Provincial Championship, under-20s and schools programmes. 

“Consistency of player availability and injuries was huge for us last season,” Cama reflects. “We didn’t really have the same squad from tournament to tournament so it showed our lack of depth and lack of sevens experience. Young players were learning on the go. 

But he admitted: “With those guys who’ve been around a long time, it was a tough conversation and was always going to be hard”.

Despite that difficulty, Cama can already see the progress made by his second-season players like Rob Rush — who will miss Cape Town because of injury — Frank Vaenuku and Sofai Notoa-Tipo (formerly Maka), who were all strong performers in Dubai, while he was happy to unleash his rookies into the Sevens cauldron. 

Kele Lasaqa came up with a try-saver in the pool win over Australia, while Jayden Keelan scored the decisive try in the final. 

“We have to be really mindful of the game plan versus just letting them go and play,  because you give them their freedom, they’ll make errors and then those errors can be costly. It’s big moments as well, but we have to keep encouraging them to play and make sure that they keep learning.”

The picture for the women’s team this season is slightly different. With Sarah Hirini and Michaela Brake both pregnant, Shiray Kaka having had a baby and Kelly Brazier at the backend of her career, along with a handful of the squad involved in Rugby World Cup, coach Cory Sweeney says the runway into this season was short. It makes the win in Dubai extra-pleasing. 

“It’s the knowledge, experience and wisdom that’s missing at the moment but we’ve got to create that because we don’t have someone like Gossy (Hirini) who just knows the game inside out. She knows the pressure, knows the stadiums, knows the opposition and the new players haven’t got that yet. It’s a lot to take out, right?”

At times in Dubai it looked like muscle memory and the sheer will of Jorja Miller got them through. After strong pre-seasons, Jazmin Felix-Hotham, Kelsey Teneti and Mahina Paul did a lot of heavy lifting, while experience helped Stacey Waaka and Risi Pouri-Lane compensate for their lack of sevens legs. 

On debut, Braxton Sorensen-McGee, who lit up the World Cup, had limited minutes. Sweeney cautions that we shouldn’t expect miracles from the teenager or her counterpart Katelyn Vaha’akolo, who had a brief taste of sevens last season. 

“I’m not sure if we underestimate the transition from fifteens to sevens but it’s hard, the game’s different. I think when you go to fifteens, it’s detail, tactical, set plays, systems and when you come here, it’s accuracy of skill and small things that you’ve got to get really right, because the consequences are so big,” Sweeney says.

The start was better than bright, but the lessons will keep coming as both teams in black go through a period of renewal. In letting go of those experienced players, Cama has had to look at the overall Olympic cycle, believing they can’t simply call players in late in the four-year campaign. Not everyone is Antoine Dupont. 

“I feel like some young ones will take two years and after the second year, I reckon they’ll be ready to rip up,” he says. 

Given New Zealand has had decades of success, few can comprehend the lack of high-level sevens played in the country outside the school game in recent years. Sweeney believes they’re now seeing the gap in talent identification that fell by the wayside when resources were cut during and after Covid, while Cama says the reintroduction of the Ignite talent scouting competition at the start of November is a starting point, but both coaches have a gap to bridge. 

“At least with Ignite back, there’s an opportunity for some of the ones coming through to actually play sevens, but we’re trying to pick players from school and NPC. They’re good rugby players but sevens is different,” says Cama. 

“We used to play sevens at club, regionals and nationals, but some of these players are learning to pass left to right and where to stand, while at speed and under fatigue. It’s chaos for them.”

For Sweeney and the Black Ferns, this day was always going to come and the standards they’ve set mean there’ll be little forgiveness if they start to slip. However he’s excited by what’s ahead and where the team can get to.

“We have to coach the group that is in front of us now and what we want is for them to not make it easy for anybody coming back in. If it’s hard for Michaela and Gossy to come back, that would be the ultimate because it means the legacy has continued and evolved and we’re not relying on what we’ve done in the past.”

The ruthless nature of the new HSBC SVNS format may mean teams go from penthouse to outhouse in the space of a week, particularly in the men’s game where little separates the eight sides. But, as far as starts go, the new-look, rejuvenated New Zealand teams couldn’t have asked for much better. 

The Black Ferns have flexed their muscles early and the sleeping giants of the All Blacks Sevens are once again rumbling awake.