SINGAPORE — The New Zealand All Blacks rugby sevens team will head into this weekend’s Singapore Sevens — the eighth leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series — with a slightly unfamiliar line-up.

That is because injuries have robbed the All Blacks of four of their regular players in Pita Ahki, Sam Dickson, Tim Mikkelson and Lewis Ormond. Former captain DJ Forbes will also be giving the Singapore leg a miss, and will instead fly back to New Zealand to recuperate as part of his long-term conditioning plan for the Rio Olympic Games. In their place, All Blacks head coach Gordon Tietjens has called on the services of Antonio Kiri Kiri, Josh van Leishout and Isaac Te Aute. The trio flew into Singapore on Tuesday night.

While the All Blacks — who still boast Rugby World Cup star Sonny Bill Williams among their ranks — may not have some of their first-teamers for the Singapore Sevens, experienced winger Kurt Baker has backed his team to still put on a good showing at the National Stadium this weekend.

“We lost a few players from last week and we’re entering the Singapore Sevens with a pretty new group, but we’re still confident we can do a good job,” Baker told TODAY. “It’s close between us and Fiji in the World Sevens Series standings at the moment, so it’s going to make for interesting watching. But we’re here with the aim to win the event.”

Te Aute, who could make his debut for the All Black Sevens team in Singapore, added: “It’s not a good thing losing the experienced boys. But this team is built on resilience and we will bounce back from this setback.”

Both Baker and Te Aute were speaking on the sidelines of a coaching clinic — which was organised by New Zealand Rugby sponsors AIG and Air New Zealand — at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) yesterday.

The duo, along with team-mates Kiri Kiri, Van Lieshout, Sione Molia and Gillies Kaka, helped conduct an hour-long training session for 30 ACS(I) students, who were put through various agility and passing drills. NOAH TAN