Tepaea Cook-Savage is poised to debut for the All Blacks Sevens, after being called into the squad to contest this weekend's world series tournament at Cape Town.
The rookie joins the NZ men's squad, with the retirement of veteran Kurt Baker, after last week's third-place finish at Dubai.
"Tepaea is a quality player, with plenty to offer," said coach Clark Laidlaw. "We want him to embrace the opportunity and really enjoy making his debut.
"He has fitted into the group over the last six weeks or so, and he just needs to focus on delivering his job, play what is in front of him."
After crashing to ninth in the opening event of the 2022/23 series at Hong Kong last month, the All Blacks Sevens toppled powerhouse Fiji in poolplay at Dubai, before losing to eventual winners South Africa in the semis and defeating USA in the bronze final.
"We went into Dubai with the intention to be direct, physical and continue to build on our game as a team," said Laidlaw. "We had a really good training block post Hong Kong and thought our performances showed this, although disappointed not to go a couple places better.
"This weekend, we have had a short turnaround, but have prepared really well. We love playing in Cape Town, and are really focused to start well against Spain and continue to build our performances on the field."
The men face Spain, Kenya and Argentina in their pool at Cape Town.
Meanwhile, the Black Ferns Sevens will try to build on their runners-up finish to Australia at Dubai, still missing the veteran core that helped them to Tokyo Olympic gold last year.
While captain Sarah Hirini, Portia Woodman, Stacey Fluhler, Ruby Tui and Theresa Fitzpatrick recover from their monumental efforts at last month's Rugby World Cup, coach Cory Sweeney has another chance to blood the next wave of international stars.
"We are really happy with how the team performed in Dubai," he said. "We had our three debutants play their first world series tournament and we were proud of what we achieved in Dubai.
"This week has been about recovering both physically and mentally, while we look ahead to the weekend. We want to continue to build on the connections we have built and the growth we have achieved in Dubai."
They face Brazil, Great Britain and Fiji in poolplay at Cape Town.
All Blacks Sevens: 2-Brady Rush, 3-Tone Ng Shiu, 4-Akuila Rokolisoa, 7-Sam Dickson (C), 9-Amanaki Nicole, 11-Joe Webber, 13-Moses Leo, 21-Che Clark, 23-Lewis Ormond, 24-Tepaea Cook-Savage, 44-Roderick Solo, 49-Caleb Tangitau, 64-Regan Ware
Black Ferns Sevens: 4-Niall Williams, 6-Michaela Blyde, 7-Tyla Nathan-Wong (C), 8-Kelly Brazier, 13-Jazmin Felix-Hotham, 14-Terina Te Tamaki, 18-Kelsey Teneti, 22-Shiray Kaka, 26-Tysha Ikenasio, 33-Manaia Nuku, 77-Risaleaana Pouri-Lane, 83-Jorja Miller, 99-Tenika Willison
