Black Ferns Sevens veteran Portia Woodman has helped her team salvage a facesaving draw with Fiji in pool play at the Langford Sevens in Canada.
Returning to the world series for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Tokyo Olympic champions cruised through their opening two games against England and USA to secure a spot in Monday's (NZ time) quarter-finals.
But they seemed headed for a shock defeat against the Fijians, who took the bronze medal at Tokyo and have quickly become a force on the international circuit.
Michaela Blyde put the NZ women ahead early with an unconverted try, but the Kiwis were put under pressure, when Kelly Brazier was shown a yellow card, leaving her team a player short for two minutes.
During her absence, Fiji took the lead through a converted try to Raijieli Daveua and then fell further behind, when Alowesi Nakoci crossed out wide.
With time up and trailling 12-5, the Ferns remained patient, eventually creating an opening in centrefield for Woodman to outpace the defence and score under the posts, with Risi Pouri-Lane providing the all-important conversion. Draws are allowed to stand in pool play.
The try leaves Woodman one short of becoming the first woman to score 200 on the international circuit.
Earlier, New Zealand made a triumphant return to the series, overwhelming England 31-0 in their opening pool game.
Ahead 10-0 at halftime, they spread the scoring around, with Stacey Fluhler, Pouri-Lane, Brazier, Woodman and Blyde each crossing for tries.
The NZ women returned to the field later to deliver a 36-0 defeat to United States, with Woodman grabbing two more tries. Blyde also had a try double, with Tyler Nathan-Wong and Shiray Kaka the other scorers.
"It feels like home," Woodman told Sky Sport. "With a bunch of us going to Aupiki Super Rugby and the [Black Ferns] end-of-year tour, coming back to sevens feels like home - it's nice to get a bit of normality for us.
"If you feel like we're excited, we're probably 10 times more excited - the girls are absolutely loving it."
New Zealand finish top of Pool C, with USA second and Fiji third, still likely to qualify among two lucky losers for the quarter-finals. The Black Ferns will face Canada, runners-up in Pool A behind Australia.
Australia currently lead the women's standings with victories at three of the four tournaments so far.
NZ 31 (Fluhler, Pouri-Lane, Brazier, Woodman, Blyde tries, Nathan-Wong 2 & Pouri-Lane conversions) England 0
NZ 36 (Woodman 2, Blyde 2, Nathan-Wong, Kaka tries, Nathan-Wong 3 conversions) USA 0
NZ 12 (Blyde & Woodman tries, Pouri-Lane conversion) Fiji 12 (Daveua & Nakoci tries, Cavuru conversion)
