NZ made to work 'really hard' for thrilling quarterfinal win

New Zealand are through to the semi-finals of the Sydney Sevens are a thrilling 12-0 win over rivals Samoa in the first men’s quarterfinal on Saturday.

The All Blacks Sevens were incredible during their first two games of the event, albeit against less fancied opposition.

After opening their Sydney Sevens campaign with an emphatic 45-7 win over Uruguay, the men in black backed that result with a convincing 33-nil win over Kenya.

That match set up a titanic tussle against fierce rivals South Africa, and that match couldn’t have been any more dramatic.

South Africa recorded victory in Sydney – and ultimately topped Pool B – after kicking a penalty goal in the kicking stages to win by three points.

New Zealand then faced an intriguing matchup against Samoa, if they wanted to keep their Cup Final dreams alive heading into Day Three.

This match was by no means easy; Samoa have been one of the form teams of the World Series this season, and they showed Sydney why that is once more on Saturday evening.

The All Blacks Sevens opened the scoring through Roderick Solo, but had to wait until the final minute of the match to score again.

But as the adage goes, defence wins championships.

After walking off the field alongside some of his New Zealand teammates, sevens veteran Dylan Collier reflected on the “real close game.”

“It was a real close game all the way through and we just closed it out at the end there,” Collier told RugbyPass.

“Full credit to Samoa, they’ve been on fire all weekend. They’ve been probably one of the form teams.

“We made it a bit hard for ourselves in the game before having to come up against them, but just really pleased to get the win, we worked really hard and managed to come out on top.”

New Zealand star Joe Webber was clearly disappointed following the loss to South Africa, but appeared confident that the team could bounce back in the quarterfinals.

And that’s exactly what they did.

The result seemed to teach the World Series leaders a thing or two, before entering the fray of sudden death rugby once again.

“To be honest in that game against South Africa we didn’t play our best. We blew a lot (of opportunities), he added.

“We just knew we had to be a bit more clinical and execute our plays.

“In finals footy you’ve just got to take your opportunities when you can. As you saw in that game there were only two tries scored so we just had to take them when we could.”