A squad of New Zealand based players has been training under head coach Tevita Tu'ifua for the past three years, which formed the core of teams that have competed in the men's Oceania Sevens Championship, World Sevens Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Tonga Rugby Union CEO Peter Harding said the New Zealand based programme has "kept men's sevens alive for Tonga" but with Covid-19 still prevalent in the Northern Hemisphere, they have decided to only select players who are already currently playing professionally in Europe.
