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National | All Blacks

Sevens stars serve up breakfast and rugby balls

Joe Webber cooks up a feed for the fans. Source - File.

Our national Sevens teams served up bacon, eggs, and rugby balls in Hamilton’s Garden Place this morning. All Blacks Sevens and Black Ferns Sevens team members sharpened up on the ringawera skills ahead of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens series this weekend.

All Black Sevens Ngarohi McGarvey-Black (Ngāi Tūhoe) says, "He mea pai ki te hoki mai ki te whakawhanaunga me ngā tamariki me ngā kaitautoko nō konei. Nō reira he pai ki te whakakotahi me rātou."

“It's good to interact and engage with the kids and with the local fans us! So was good to come together with them.”

Black Fern Seven Gayle Broughton says, “I guess for us we love this part of footy. Like I said before, getting to show our other side to our fans and our people, showing them that we're just as normal as they are. But we just happen to have a really cool job.”

Bacon and Egg butties weren’t the only thing on the menu. Autographed rugby balls were there for the taking as well. A humbling experience, to prepare them for the weekend.

Garvey-Black continues, “Building slowly you know, not trying to peak or do extra ordinary things that we haven't done before. So we just need to stick to our processes and our training have been good this week. We've had a bit of a down low week and just ready to peak for Saturday really.”

Hamilton Boys High School old boy Joe Webber says, “I'm excited to be back playing in Waikato stadium. Like through school that was the stadium that sort of where I'd go watch at school and that's what inspired me to play rugby. I was fortunate enough to play 4-5 years with Waikato so a lot of good memories on that field.”

This weekend will also be the first time, that a woman’s series will be held on Aotearoa soil.

Broughton says, “That would add a lot of pressure to any team in general. For us it's just like we always say, it's the same field, same ball, same metres off the field, same game. Just a bit of a different view and that view just happens to be our home.”

The All Blacks Sevens prepare to face off against Wales, and the Black Ferns Sevens prepare to take on China.