Tomasi Cama exits All Blacks Sevens after 20 years as player and head coach

Tomasi Cama is stepping down as All Blacks Sevens head coach at the end of the 2025-26 SVNS World Series campaign, New Zealand Rugby confirmed, drawing a curtain on a career that stretched across more than 150 tournaments as both player and coach.

Cama, 45, joined the coaching staff in 2017 and was elevated to head coach in 2023. His final tournament in charge ended with a runner-up finish at the Bordeaux SVNS Series event, where New Zealand fell 14-5 to France in the final.

As a player, Cama was one of the most decorated figures in the sevens format. He made his All Blacks Sevens debut in 2005 and retired in 2015 as the team’s all-time leading points scorer with 2,020 points. Along the way he claimed the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year award in 2012, a Sevens Rugby World Cup winners’ medal in 2013, and a gold medal at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

“I’ve had some incredible opportunities through Sevens and feel privileged to have represented the black jersey both as a player and a coach for more than 20 years,” Cama said. “I care deeply about the players and the black jersey will forever be in my heart, but it’s time for somebody else to take the reins.”

Cama paid tribute to the coaches who shaped him, singling out Dave Rennie, Gordon Tietjens, and Clark Laidlaw. He also expressed pride in the players he worked alongside and optimism about the next generation coming through the programme.

New Zealand Rugby’s High Performance Sevens lead, Hannah Porter, said Cama had written himself into the history books on both sides of the coaching divide. “He has put an immense amount of time and care into the jersey,” Porter said. “He inspired a generation of players with his on-field performances and then shared his mana and knowledge as a coach with the next generation of young Sevens stars.”

NZR confirmed it will announce the full coaching and management group to take the All Blacks Sevens forward in July.