New Zealand Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens has had to make three changes to his squad for the Adelaide International Sevens, the sixth leg of the IRB Sevens World Series.

Bay of Plenty’s Lance MacDonald joins the team for the first time since 2006 as a replacement for Victor Vito, who has rejoined the Hurricanes squad in South Africa.

Tietjens also gives debuts to Luke Hamilton and Jeremy Cave, replacing Tomasi Cama and Jordan Puletua, who have been ruled out with finger ligament and hamstring injuries respectively.

Tietjens said that losing Cama and Puletua was a blow to the team and only added to the “miserable run of injuries” which his squad has had this season.

“Losing a senior player like Tomasi is always tough, but this is an ideal opportunity for a player like Luke Hamilton to show his stuff," he said.

"He was picked as the outstanding player of the tournament at the Pub Charity National Sevens in Queenstown earlier this year and it was only due to injury that he wasn’t named in our 2009 squad."

Zar Lawrence will be rejoining the team in Adelaide on Thursday following his brother’s tangi (Maori funeral) in the Far North.

New Zealand start their Adelaide campaign with a match on Friday night against World Champions Wales and then face further pool matches against Tonga and USA on Saturday.

NZ Squad for Adelaide: Jeremy Cave (Otago), DJ Forbes (Captain, Counties Manukau), Paul Grant (Otago), Luke Hamilton (North Harbour), Nigel Hunt (Bay of Plenty), Zar Lawrence (Bay of Plenty), Lance MacDonald (Bay of Plenty), Tim Mikkelson (Waikato), Lote Raikabula (Manawatu), Julian Savea (Wellington), Ben Souness (Taranaki), Chad Tuoro (Counties Manukau).