Additional speed, experience and a playmaker in the mould of Amasio Valence are the weapons New Zealand carry into the International Rugby Board sevens tournament starting here tomorrow.

Coach Gordon Tietjens and his men will look to discover the winning touch that deserted them at Westpac Stadium a year ago after a memorable three-year reign as champions at Wellington.

Tietjens can sense the positivity which was missing for almost all of last season -- as the six-time world series champions slumped to a distant fourth overall -- is returning.

It showed in the first two tournaments of the 2006-07 campaign, where they reached the final against South Africa at both Dubai and George last month. They lost the first and won the second to share the overall lead in the eight-leg series.

"Coming off those tournaments, it brought a lot of confidence," Tietjens said.

"Hopefully we can combine as well as we did over there. If we do we can have a big tourney here."

There are four changes from last month's 12-strong squad, with the return from injury of captain Tafai Ioasa adding valuable experience, so crucial in the deafening atmosphere that traditionally envelopes the tournament.

Introducing Charles Baxter, Tomasi Cama and new cap Steven Yates also makes the New Zealand squad quicker all round, Tietjens believed.

"These guys are really fit in terms of repeated speed, which is a real bonus for us.

"Even at those two tournaments we had quite consistent pace right throughout the side, especially in the backs."

It is Cama who has Tietjens most excited, the diminutive Manawatu playmaker having been named player of the tournament at the recent national championships in Queenstown.

Tietjens compared him to veteran halfback Amasio Valence, who left for Japan after winning a second Commonwealth Games gold medal last year.

"He's in the same mould, I suppose as Amasio who was one of the best players to ever wear the black jersey for us," Tietjens said.

"He's still young but he knows the game inside out, there's not many Fijians who don't.

"He played particularly well in the trials."

Cama won a national sevens contract two years ago but Tietjens dropped him last year. He needed to improve his physicality, something he had done by beefing up in the Air New Zealand Cup environment with Manawatu.

New Zealand's pool opponents tomorrow are Kenya, Tonga and Argentina while Tietjens mentioned Fiji and South Africa prominently when discussing the teams to watch in the knockout stages on Saturday.

Fiji will still be stinging from twin losses to New Zealand at the semifinal stages last month and will hope young wizard William Ryder can have the same influence as he did in the memorable final defeat of South Africa here last year.

The South Africans have been robbed of several key figures this week by Super 14 rugby and also suffered a late blow when prodigious tryscorer Stefan Basson was forced to withdraw with a thigh injury.

He has been replaced by Baldwin McBean.

Much interest will surround the performance of England, who have a new coach in Ben Ryan.

Mike Friday, who had nearly six years with the team as the coach or assistant, left the role following the George tournament to follow a career in business.

Pools:

Pool A: Fiji, France, Portugal, USA

Pool B: South Africa, Australia, Canada, Cook Islands

Pool C: England, Samoa, Scotland, PNG

Pool D: New Zealand. Kenya, Argentina, Tonga

Result of the final at the seven previous IRB Wellington tournaments:

1999-2000: Fiji 24 New Zealand 14

2000-01: Australia 19 Fiji 17

2001-02: South Africa 17 Samoa 14

2002-03: New Zealand 38 England 26

2003-04: New Zealand 33 Fiji 15

2004-05: New Zealand 31 Argentina 7

2005-06: Fiji 27 South Africa 22 (extra time)

2006-07 series standings after two of eight rounds:

New Zealand, South Africa 36 points 1 equal, England, Fiji 24 3 equal, Samoa 12 5, France 10 6, Wales 8 7, Australia, Tunisia 6 8 equal

2006-07 series leading pointscorers:

Stefan Basson (South Africa) 115 1, Nigel Hunt (NZ) 99 2, William Ryder (Fiji) 89 3, Philip Burger (South Africa) 83 4, Wensley Mbanje (Zimbabwe) 55 5

2006-07 series leading tryscorers:

Burger, Hunt 13 1 equal, Basson, Mbanje, Ryder 11 3 equal

All-time leading IRB sevens pointscorers:

Ben Gollings (England) 1613 1, Waisale Serevi (Fiji) 1250 2, Amasio Valence (NZ) 1124 3, Uale Mai (Samoa) 779 4, Santiago Gomez Cora (Argentina) 745 5

All-time leading IRB sevens tryscorers:

Cora 147 1, Gollings 143 2, Fabian Juries (South Africa) 132 3, Karl Tenana (NZ) 113 4, Valence 112 5

NZPA