New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens insists that the HSBC Sevens World Series is far from won, despite his side leading England by 13 points with only two events to play.
The New Zealanders will travel to Europe for the final two rounds of the Series at Twickenham and Murrayfield in May with a comfy cushion, but the experienced coach is taking nothing for granted, even after winning a fourth Cup title of the season in Adelaide.
"Thirteen points is not many, we can slip up as early as the quarter finals and they are right on your heels again. We go into the last two tournaments and just like we did here, one game and one tournament at a time," he said.
"We may be favorites but we just go back, review the situation and certainly look to get a little bit better and attack those last two tournaments with the same hunger we did here."
In beating South Africa, Tietjens' men clinched their first Adelaide title and in Tomasi Cama the coach certainly possesses a playmaker capable of bossing and winning key matches. In both the Hong Kong and Adelaide finals, arguably he proved the difference.
Cama a match-winner
"He played outstandingly, he mesmerized the opposition in that final and had a great tournament. We saw what a class act he is," said Tietjens of Cama.
"It was really important," added Cama. "We know England are not far behind us, nor are the other four teams, but winning this one has given us a good advantage for our goal in the season. It is just a matter of getting up for the last two.
The Fijian-born playmaker also passed Amasio Valence Raoma in Adelaide to become New Zealand's all time leading point-scorer in Sevens.
"It is really special, the record was held by one of the New Zealand Sevens greats. I hadn't really thought about it until they told me afterwards that I broke the record but it is something really special that I can look back on when I finish rugby."
Paul Treu's South African side played brilliantly to dispatch first Fiji and then England en route to the final, showing the kind of form that carried them to the overall crown in 2008/09.
Treu: Credit to New Zealand
"It was so close, to give credit to New Zealand they are the form team and they played very well. I'm so proud of my players. To come back after losing to Samoa last night, put Fiji away and then beat the second best team in the world England, credit to our boys, 18 and 20 year olds and some of them in their first few tournaments and playing that New Zealand team, which is so experienced," said Treu, who believes New Zealand have now every chance of claiming a ninth Series title.
"I can't see how this New Zealand team can fall short in the final two tournaments. I think they will keep the momentum and it's going to be tough for England because whenever you play at home you have that added pressure. They need to put this loss behind them, if they can leave it here in Adelaide and focus on those last two tournaments they might give themselves a chance."
In reaching the Cup semi finals, England enjoyed their best ever finish in Adelaide. They take 16 Series points towards their overall tally but lie 13 behind the kiwis with their home event next up.
Ryan: Mixed feelings
"I have mixed feelings here, we had our best ever Adelaide performance but we also have one eye on what New Zealand are doing," said England coach Ben Ryan. "We're still in the mix going into the two European tournaments and we haven't given up quite yet.
"A home tournament is a major advantage, the travel that you don't have to do and also the knowledge that you're in front of your own Twickenham crowd is going to make a big difference to us. We've set ourselves a target of winning our home tournament all year, we need to take that out, and we'll look at where we are in relation to everyone else after London and we still want to make sure that we've got a chance to win the Series. It's going to take a big effort, but stranger things happens in Sevens. We hope that we can win the next two tournaments."
It is eight-time Series winners New Zealand, though, who hold the trump cards heading into the season's final stages. If Tietjens can retain his experienced core of DJ Forbes, Solomon King, Lote Raikabula, Tim Mikkelson and the outstanding Cama, it is tough to see them leaking 13 points. But, as Ryan points out, stranger things have happened in the game of Sevens.
Other reaction
Paul John, Wales coach (Plate winners)
"It's been a great day for the boys, we've proved that they can compete with the top six sides. Great game against England, pushed them all the way, and even more pleased with the way we bounced back to beat Fiji. In the past we've lost a quarter final and then under-performed in the Plate semi, so to beat Fiji is a massive performance and then we've managed to close on the gap on Argentina by beating them in the final."
Al Caravelli, USA coach (Bowl winners)
"We've had a couple of Shields and we said we didn't want any more Shields, we want to walk away with points for the Series. But more importantly the players got better as the weekend went on and that's what we tried to do to springboard us into the last two tournaments. We were 13th before, this takes us up to 10th and if we do things properly we will be able to pick up more points in the last two rounds (of the HSBC Sevens World Series)."
Kensuke Iwabuchi, Japan Player/Manager (Shield winners)
"Everybody knows that we had the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan in March and it was very difficult to leave Japan at this stage, but because we are rugby players everything we can do is to play for Japan. We enjoyed a good result in Hong Kong and we had good motivation to come here and it was really good for us to win the Shield final. Everybody was tired but because of the situation the players just wanted to play their best."
