McGarvey-Black returns from shoulder injury to star in All Blacks Sevens' 40-0 rout of Uruguay in Valladolid

Ngarohi McGarvey-Black ended a lengthy injury absence on Friday morning in Valladolid, slotting four conversions as the All Blacks Sevens opened their World Championship Series campaign with a commanding 40-0 Pool B victory over Uruguay at Estadio José Zorrilla.

The 30-year-old playmaker had been sidelined since picking up a shoulder injury at the Ignite 7 tournament in Tauranga late last year, causing him to miss the entire HSBC SVNS Series regular season and the opening stop of the World Championship Series. He was named in the squad for the penultimate two events of the season — Valladolid and Bordeaux — alongside fellow returning inclusion Jayden Keelan.

Six different players crossed the whitewash against Uruguay, with Kitiona Vai opening the scoring in the third minute. Roderick Solo and stand-in captain Sione Molia added further tries before the break, and the second half brought more of the same, with Kele Lasaqa, Regan Ware, and Akuila Rokolisoa completing the shutout. Molia assumed the captaincy after Dyler Collier was ruled out through injury.

Speaking after the match in the sweltering northwestern Spanish heat, McGarvey-Black acknowledged the physical challenge of returning to competition in conditions far removed from a New Zealand winter.

“Oh bloody hell, I thought I was good leading into today,” McGarvey-Black said. “You come here, different climates, bloody 30-something degrees. Back in New Zealand, it’s a little bit of winter so yeah it’s nothing compared to what we’ve been training in back home. But this is what we play for. We love the pain so it is what it is.”

Molia echoed the sentiment, crediting the team’s management for making transitions seamless when injuries force late changes to the squad.

“The word that we used the whole week was just grateful,” Molia said. “Grateful that we get to be on the other side of the world in Spain and do the things that we love. That’s all big ups to the management and the leadership group back home, just making it real easy for whoever gets that call to fill in the shoes to just go in and do the job.”

Molia also noted that Uruguay, despite the scoreline, were not taken lightly heading into the tournament opener. “We all knew Uruguay is a bit of a niggly team to get a start on for the tournament. We just talked about winning all the effort areas and I thought we did that and that’s what got us the win.”

New Zealand will continue their World Championship Series campaign in Valladolid before travelling to Bordeaux for the final event of the season.