England Rugby Sevens head coach Simon Amor has insisted that his side are capable of beating New Zealand at this summer's Commonwealth Games.
The All Blacks go into the campaign as reigning IRB World Series and World Cup champions, while they have claimed gold in every single Sevens tournament at the Commonwealth Games since its inception in 1998.
However, despite New Zealand's dominance in the format, Amor is confident that they can beat the Southern Hemispheres heavyweights to the gold having triumphed against them during the London Sevens in May.
"They're an outstanding team and I don't think they've lost one game ever at the Commonwealth Games since its inception so they're a tough team to beat," Amor told reporters.
"But they are beatable, you just need to bring you whole 'A game' to the party at that moment. Their ability to mentally deal with the challenges that come from massive events is huge. They've got some world-class players and are very experienced and seasoned.
"Their physical brand of rugby at the moment is very, very, very good, but they are beatable, we have beaten them and we can beat them."
England have only ever won one silver medal in Sevens at the Commonwealth Games, but Amor is confident that his side can beat anyone on their day.
"We've beaten all the teams this season. We're neck and neck in terms of wins and losses against Fiji and South Africa, we've beaten Australia four or five times. We lost to them in London which was a bit frustrating, that is the one loss we've had to them. We've beaten New Zealand a couple of times," he added.
"It's doing it consistently, doing it when it really matters on the biggest stage and we're preparing scenarios for that, but deep down you won't know until you get into the environment and you see how it all pans out."
Amor named his 12-man squad for the Games earlier today as England prepare to face Uganda, Sri Lanka and Australia in Group D on July 26.
Barney Corkhill
