Waikato youngsters Glen Robertson and Joe Webber both missed out on selection after having played in the first three IRB Sevens Series tournaments of the 2011-2012 season (Australia, Dubai and South Africa).
Coach Teitjens has gone with Kylem O’Donnell in the back-up playmaker position with new-commer Mark Jackman providing line-breaking potential one out.
Ben Souness made a return to the New Zealand Sevens team at the Dubai and South Africa Sevens as injury cover for Scott Curry but he has been left out.
Souness was part of the 2009-10 campaign but took the next season off to concentrate on his 15-a-side career (Number 8 for Taranaki). He did not make it into a Super Rugby squad and made himself available for sevens again.
Nafi Tuitavake was not in the New Zealand Team set up for the 2010-2011 season because he was in the wider training squad of the Auckland Blues Super Rugby team.
But he chose not to put his hat in the ring this time around so he could concentrate on sevens. Non selection will be a blow to the powerful outside back.
Wellington’s George Tilsley came in as injury cover at the South Africa leg of the 2011-2012 IRB Series but was not selected in the broader training squad and will not be part of the New Zealand team this year either.
I was very surprised that neither Tilsely or powerful running loose forward Shane Christie made it into the broader training squad.
That said, it’s a brave man to question the selection and development choices of super-coach Gordon Teitjens. It’s easy to get excited about prominent players at provincial tournaments but moulding winning teams in the extremely tough schedule that is the IRB World Series is another story.