The injury crisis engulfing New Zealand following a disappointing performance at the Dubai Rugby Sevens will not rush coach Sir Gordon Tietjens into introducing Sonny Bill Williams into the international sevens fold.

The Kiwis head into the second leg of the 2015-16 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in South Africa this weekend with a string of injuries picked up in the opening round in Dubai, but Tietjens insists All Blacks Rugby World Cup star Williams will not feature in the Cape Town tournament.

Williams flew with the New Zealand squad to the UAE for the inaugural round of the World Series and featured in a non-playing capacity after he was named in Tietjens’ core squad to prepare for the Olympic Games in Rio next year.

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The legendary sevens coach revealed that Williams was eager to feature in Dubai as the injuries mounted, but he had disappointing news for All Blacks sevens and rugby fans in general.

“No, he’s never played sevens,” replied Tietjens when asked if New Zealand’s horrendous injury list could mean the 30-year-old All Blacks centre being introduced to the shorter format of the game earlier than anticipated.

“I jokingly said to him that he might get to play earlier than we first thought. He said ‘can I do that?’. We’ve got a tournament in South Africa in five days’ time and the bodies have taken a hammering.

“We’ve got a plan for him and we’ll stick to that. He’ll come in really conditioned to play sevens and train with us and then, when it’s time to get him out, we will. 

“That applies to so many others too. Wellington or Sydney they’ll come in because we’ll need them.”

As New Zealand limped into fourth place after being beaten 31-12 by the USA, they did so with just five players on the pitch at the final whistle to compound their injury woes.

They lost Sherwin Stowers in that game to a broken arm, while DJ Forbes, Joe Webber, captain Scott Curry, Tim Mikkelson, Gillies Kaka and Regan Wear were all struck down at some point during the weekend by injury in what Tietjens labelled his worst tournament ever.

The 59-year-old said it even got to the stage where he questioned whether pushing for a high finish in the elite men’s competition was beneficial to his side, although he insisted the thought of forfeiting never crossed his mind.

“We got to a stage in Dubai where we thought whether playing for third was really beneficial. It’s only one point difference (in the standings),” said Tietjens.

“Looking at player welfare, we thought about it and then we lost a guy with a broken arm, so it’s really horrendous. 

“We were never going to walk away from the game. All I did was ask the question ‘are we realistically allowed to field six fit players? Can we do that?’ I had to ask the question.”