Selection problems for Tietjens
January 31, 2000

New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens has been forced to delay naming his squad of 12 for this weekend's Wellington Sevens because of illness and injuries.

Veteran forward Dallas Seymour has a strained back and youngster Craig de Goldi a sprained ankle which have forced both to restrict their training to gym work.In addition , Waikato's flying winger Roger Randle has missed the New Zealand training camp to care for his sick wife.

On the positive side, Tietjens has been heartened by the return to sevens duty of All Black test players Jonah Lomu, Christian Cullen and Caleb Ralph. They have not played the sevens game since helping New Zealand to take the gold medal at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.

Tietjens said on Sunday, "To be successful in sevens, you've got
to playing it all the time. But these guys were getting up to speed quite well today.Jonah is getting up to speed quite well at training and Cullen and Ralph are just about there."

It seems certain that Tietjens will be able to name a formidable starting line up as New Zealand seek to edge ahead of Fiji in the World Sevens Series.

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