The New Zealand 7s team will be chasing their first Adelaide Sevens title this weekend as the Gordon Tietjens coached side is yet to taste victory in Adelaide.
While the Kiwis have won eight of the ten World Series titles as well as a Rugby World Cup Sevens crown in 2001 and all three Commonwealth Games gold medals, the Adelaide title seems to be the only one eluding the team.
All seven of the other stops on the World tour have at some stage climaxed with a kiwi victory Haka, but so far only Fiji and South Africa have tasted victory in Australia, a little statistic Tietjens is keen to remedy.
"We were talking about it today, we've been in the final and were beaten by South Africa and beaten last year in the quarter final by South Africa so it hasn't been a happy hunting ground for us," he told IRB.com
"We've won in Australia before, but not in Adelaide, so it would be great. For some of the players it's new and there's also excitement about playing at the Adelaide Oval with all the history in cricket that it has.
"Hopefully we take it a game at a time, play six finals and get the Adelaide title."
Tietjens cites Australia as very credible title contenders on home soil, but believes that the principle challenge comes from the USA Sevens champions, Samoa.
"We've been in three of the four Cup finals so far this year and in the one we lost we were comprehensively beaten by Samoa, who I thought played very well.
"They're the form team but we've lost three tries to (Mikaele) Pesamino through intercepts and a couple of loose passes or missed tackles can cost you in Sevens, especially 14-pointers in a final."
Although the New Zealanders currently sit pretty in the World Series standings, their 14-point lead over Samoa owes much to their two Cup victories before Christmas.
Since then, the men in black have looked far more fallible, vulnerable even, and the loss of key speed man Sherwin Stowers is a bitter blow.
"Sherwin's huge because he's got that massive ingredient of pace and you can't replace that.
He's also a strong defender and strong in contact. He's going to be ready for Hong Kong.
"It's good for us here in a way to give an opportunity on the wing to another couple of players, because if Sherwin was out for a longer period then we'd have to find someone to fill that spot. It's quite competitive at the moment in the squad."
Tietjens also believes that New Zealand's pool is arguably the toughest of the four. Scotland lies in wait on Friday evening and there are further testers against Tonga and Argentina on day two.
"It's a tough draw with those teams and even going through to the quarter finals it's going to be either South Africa or Samoa, so it doesn't get any easier."
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