The New Zealand sevens rugby coach, Gordon Tiejtens, admits the side struggled in the Adelaide leg of the International Rugby World Series over the weekend.
New Zealand's winning streak came to a halt after 47 consecutive wins losing to South Africa 15-7 in the Cup quarter final.
However, Tiejtens says winning so many games in a row was a huge effort but the side didn't quite hit form during the two day event.
"We battled a bit perhaps some of the players you know the work load has probably been too much and we started to share a bit on day one and day two, we didn't play particularly well Tonga really pushed us and also going even Fiji we came back at the death to win that."
Meanwhile Tonga recovered from the disappointment of their slender loss to New Zealand in the Cup quarter finals beating Kenya 14-12.
New Zealand are still well ahead in the overall race for the Series Crown on 126 points with South Africa 34 points behind on 92, 18 points clear of Fiji in third.
Mathematically, New Zealand now need just seven points from the London event in May to tie up their series defence