Tomasi Cama says coaching former New Zealand team mates toughest part of the job

Tomasi Cama is no longer playing for New Zealand, instead an assistant coach overseeing his former team mates.

Back in the day, DJ Forbes would clean out rucks, Tomasi Cama would unlock the defence and Tim Mikkelson would score the tries.

Sherwin Stowers was there, causing headaches for the opposition, and the youngster Scott Curry was coming through, proving a menace himself with his work up the middle.

Almost nothing has changed as New Zealand prepare for the Wellington Sevens, except that Cama is now coaching his former team mates, rather than running around on the field with them.

The sevens superstar now carries a whistle and a spare ball under his arm at New Zealand trainings, watching closely as the players run through drill after drill.

It's been a big change, and Cama said the hardest thing about the switch is to coach his former team mates.

"That was one of the biggest challenges for me, going from playing to coaching," Cama said. 

"Coaching those players with that experience, they've been good. I always go back to them for their feedback on what we have to work on as a team, and what we need to do moving forward.

"They're helping me on my coaching side and I'm helping them on their game. It's been a good balance so far."

Two New Zealand players had to sit out training on Wednesday, with Sherwin Stowers tweaking a calf muscle, and Sione Molia also leaving the field early.

Cama said they would be checked by medical staff on Wednesday afternoon, determining whether they would be fine to train or play as the week progressed.

At one point, as Stowers sat in a van pitch side with ice applied to his calf, Cama could be heard joking with his former team mate, suggesting old age was the issue.

Cama would know, given calf problems cut his sevens career short sooner than he would have liked.

One thing to watch this week in Wellington will be how referees patrol the high tackle rules, and what cards will be shown for that sort of offending.

In Europe, referees have gone a touch overboard in their ruling of the high tackle, handing out cards at record rates.

It's not something Cama is worried about.

"There's not a lot of concern. I mean, high tackles haven't been allowed since the game's been played, but they're looking at it [more] now.

"For us, we can't control what [referees] are doing. It's about controlling what we're doing and how we're going to tackle.

"We encourage the boys to chop tackle, or anything in the mid-section. We don't want to put ourselves under pressure by having one in the bin, or two. We're really hard on the boys to avoid the referee taking us out of the game."

Photo: Getty Images (Tomasi Cama)