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New Zealand Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens has had to make changes to his squad for the Adelaide International Sevens, the sixth leg of the IRB Sevens World Series.

Bay of Plenty’s Lance MacDonald joins the team for the first time since 2006 as a replacement for Victor Vito, who has rejoined the Hurricanes squad in South Africa.
The Hurricanes have been forced to recall the 22-year-old following the departure of Scott Waldrom and Hosea Gear, who are both returning to Wellington due to injury from South Africa.

Tietjens also gives debuts to Luke Hamilton and Jeremy Cave, replacing Tomasi Cama and Jordan Puletua, who have been ruled out with finger ligament and hamstring injuries respectively.

Tietjens said that losing Cama and Puletua was a blow to the team and only added to the “miserable run of injuries” which his squad has had this season.

“Losing a senior player like Tomasi is always tough, but this is an ideal opportunity for a player like Luke Hamilton to show his stuff," he said.

"He was picked as the outstanding player of the tournament at the Pub Charity National Sevens in Queenstown earlier this year and it was only due to injury that he wasn’t named in our 2009 squad."

Zar Lawrence will be rejoining the team in Adelaide on Thursday following his brother’s tangi (Maori funeral) in the Far North.

The Kiwis are looking to bounce back from a serious dip form that has seen them fall at the quarter-final stages in San Diego, the World Cup in Dubai, and last weekend in Hong Kong.

New Zealand start their Adelaide campaign with a match on Friday night against World Champions Wales and then face further pool matches against Tonga and USA on Saturday.

South Africa made their second consecutive final in Hong Kong at the weekend and but lost out again, this time to Fiji. Still they have now built a small gap over England at the top of the IRB World Sevens Series and are much improved from Dubai.

Paul Treu has also been forced into a change with Howard Noble has been recalled into the Springbok Sevens squad for Adelaide in place of the injured Philip Snyman.

Snyman injured a leg on the first day of South Africa's charge to the runners-up position in the Hong Kong Sevens tournament. He will have an MRI scan in Bloemfontein but the early indications are that he will be sidelined for no more than two or three weeks.

The Boks tackle Cook Islands, Japan, and Cook Islands in Pool D

NZ Squad for Adelaide: Jeremy Cave (Otago), DJ Forbes (Captain, Counties Manukau), Paul Grant (Otago), Luke Hamilton (North Harbour), Nigel Hunt (Bay of Plenty), Zar Lawrence (Bay of Plenty), Lance MacDonald (Bay of Plenty), Tim Mikkelson (Waikato), Lote Raikabula (Manawatu), Julian Savea (Wellington), Ben Souness (Taranaki), Chad Tuoro (Counties Manukau).

South African Squad for Adelaide: Mpho Mbiyozo, Howard Noble, Frankie Horne, Kyle Brown, Neil Powell, Renfred Dazel, Mzwandile Stick, Vuyo Zangqa, Ryno Benjamin, Robert Ebersohn, Lionel Mapoe, Chase Minnaar.