All Black Messam back in sevens fold for Rio

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - All Blacks loose forward Liam Messam, who helped drive New Zealand to Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi in 2010, is back in the nation's rugby sevens squad after nearly six years with an eye on a medal at the Rio Olympics.

(Reuters)

Messam, capped 45 times for New Zealand in the 15-man game, joins fellow All Black Sonny Bill Williams in Gordon Tietjens' 14-man training squad for the Las Vegas and Vancouver legs of the sevens World Series.

The squad to play in the United States on March 4-6 will be trimmed down to 12 next week, and Tietjens said Messam was would not be considered for game-time until Vancouver the following week.

"I think spending another week with us in Vegas with a plan to playing him in Vancouver will be really good for him," the coach told local media.

Messam tweeted: "A lot of rust to get out of the system but grateful to be back with the @nz7s brothers."

New Zealand will be favourites to win gold when sevens makes its Olympic debut at Rio.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)