Tietjens rues crucial calls

NEW ZEALAND SEVENS coach Gordon Tietjens felt crucial calls went against his side during the final of the Las Vegas tournament.

New Zealand, minus injured game-breaker Frank Halai (knee) and Solomon King (shoulder), was pipped 26-19 by Samoa in a thrilling competition decider after a late try by Alafoti Faosiliva.

Tietjens was rueing a couple of calls that went against his side.

Among them were a second-half forward pass called on Waisake Naholo and a late penalty that handed the Samoans possession in the lead-up to the match-winning try.

“That's sevens for you,” says Tietjens.

“I thought we did enough to win that game. There are a couple calls I'll have to look at. Their guy lost the ball down there with one minute 30 seconds to go; we got it and get penalised for not releasing in the tackle.

“He had actually lost the ball. I'm struggling to get my head around that one.

“In sevens rugby you get a bad call and you haven't got 60 minutes to climb back into it.”

Despite the loss, New Zealand still tops the HSBC Sevens World Series on 92 points, five clear of Fiji.

The next tournament on the circuit is the March 23-25 Hong Kong event.