At a glance

Men’s sevens at the Tokyo Olympics

All Blacks sevens: Tim Mikkelson (co-c), Scott Curry (co-c), Dylan Collier, Tone Ng Shiu, Amanaki Nicole, Andrew Knewstubb, Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, Sione Molia, Kurt Baker, Joe Webber, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Regan Ware.

Travelling reserves: William Warbrick, Caleb Clarke.

Men’s pools

Pool A: New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, South Korea.

Pool B: Fiji, Great Britain, Canada, Japan.

Pool C: South Africa, USA, Kenya, Ireland.

New Zealand schedule and knockout matches (NZ time) Monday: South Korea at 1pm, Argentina at 8.30pm; Tuesday: Australia at 1.30pm, quarterfinals from 8.30pm; Wednesday: semifinals from 2pm, gold medal match at 9pm.

Recent Olympics

Rio 2016: Finished fifth after losing to Fiji in the quarterfinals

Outlook for Tokyo

Scotsman Clark Laidlaw is tasked with improving on the All Blacks sevens’ disappointing performance at the inaugural sevens tournament at the 2016 Olympics.

The Rio Games was a poor end to sevens coaching guru Sir Gordon Tietjens’ glittering career, as they finished fifth after a shock pool stage loss to Japan and a quarterfinal exit to old foes

Fiji, who went on to win an historic gold.

Laidlaw, the coach since 2017, has guided them to success in the two pinnacle events since Rio, with wins in 2018 at the Commonwealth Games and the Sevens World Cup, and they led the World Series until it shut down last March because of Covid-19. Tournaments in May and June marked their return to international sevens, but the lack of meaningful matches in the last 16 months makes the men’s event in Tokyo hard to predict.

Still, Fiji and New Zealand will be among the favourites. Laidlaw’s decision to not select All Black Caleb Clarke in the initial 12-man squad was a bold call, while anything less than a medal will be deemed a failure.