Tomasi Cama, one of the most decorated figures in New Zealand sevens history, has confirmed he will step aside as head coach of the All Blacks Sevens at the end of the 2025/26 World Series, closing a chapter that stretched across more than two decades in the black jersey.
The decision was announced on Monday, only hours after his side were beaten 14-5 by France in the final of the season-ending tournament in Bordeaux. That match also happened to be Cama’s 150th international sevens tournament as either a player or a coach, a milestone that underlined just how much of the modern New Zealand sevens story has run through one man.
Cama has been part of the coaching group since 2017 and took over as head coach in 2023. In a statement released through New Zealand Rugby, he framed the move as a natural ending rather than a forced one. “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,” he said, adding that he cared deeply about the players but felt it was time for somebody else to take the reins.
For anyone who followed the abbreviated game through the 2000s and 2010s, Cama’s name is shorthand for a golden era. He debuted as a playmaker in 2005 and retired in 2015 as the all-time leading points scorer in the sevens programme with 2,020 points, a tally that has not been seriously threatened since. Along the way he collected a gold medal at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, was named World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in 2012, and lifted the Sevens Rugby World Cup as a champion in 2013.
That playing pedigree gave him a rare standing when he moved into coaching, and it is the reason his departure is being treated as the end of an era rather than a routine reshuffle. Few coaches in any code can claim to have shaped a national programme as both its best player and its head coach.
The timing, though, sits against a season that quietly slipped away. The All Blacks Sevens opened the campaign in style by winning the Dubai tournament, a result that suggested another deep run at the world title was on the cards. From there the consistency drained out of the year. By the time the circuit reached Bordeaux, New Zealand had finished outside the top three in six of their nine tournaments, a record that would have been hard to imagine during the side’s years of dominance.
Injuries did not help. The squad was disrupted for long stretches, forcing Cama to blood new players earlier than planned. There were silver linings in that, most obviously the emergence of Kele Lasaqa, who was named the 2026 Men’s Rookie of the Year. The challenge of rebuilding around young talent while results were sliding is the sort of pressure that wears at a coach, and Cama also had to manage a strange interruption of his own when visa delays kept him away from the Vancouver and New York legs in March, leaving Willie Rickards to run the side in his absence.
None of that dimmed the warmth of the farewells. Hannah Porter, New Zealand Rugby’s High Performance Sevens lead, said Cama had “written himself into the history books on the world stage as both a player and a coach” and had “inspired a generation of players.” It is a sentiment that carries weight given how many current internationals grew up watching him in his pomp.
Cama, for his part, was generous in spreading the credit. He singled out the coaches who shaped him, naming Dave Rennie, Gordon Tietjens and Clark Laidlaw, three figures who between them have defined large parts of New Zealand’s rugby coaching culture. Tietjens in particular was the architect of the sevens dynasty that Cama starred in as a player, so the acknowledgement closes a neat loop.
What comes next is the harder question. New Zealand Rugby has said it will confirm a new head coach in July, which leaves a short window to settle on a direction before the next cycle of preparation begins. The men’s programme is in a rebuilding phase, with a young core that showed flashes this season but lacked the week-to-week reliability that once made the All Blacks Sevens the team everyone feared. Whoever takes the role inherits genuine talent alongside the weight of expectation that comes with one of the most successful jerseys in world sport.
There is also the matter of the wider calendar. Sevens remains an Olympic sport with a strong domestic following, and the men’s side will be expected to climb back toward the top of the standings rather than settle for the middle of the pack. A clean transition matters, and the incoming coach will want continuity in the support staff even as the head role changes hands.
For Cama, the immediate future is less defined, though few in the game would bet against him remaining involved in rugby in some capacity. He spoke of looking forward to watching the young players he helped introduce continue to develop, which hints at a man who is stepping back rather than walking away entirely. After 150 tournaments and more than 20 years, that would be a fitting way to stay close to a game he helped define.
His exit is a reminder that even the most storied programmes eventually turn over, and that the people who built them do not stay forever. The numbers, the medals and the milestones all belong to the record books now. The next chapter of the All Blacks Sevens will be written by someone else.
What do you make of Cama’s tenure and where the All Blacks Sevens go from here? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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