Blitzboks ‘can get better’
SPRINGBOK SEVENS coach Neil Powell believes he welcomed back “better rugby players” when his Blitzbok personnel – those who played fifteens this year – returned to camp.
A big part of the Blitzbok outfit took part in the 15-man game this year, with guys like Seabelo Senatla, Werner Kok, Ruhan Nel (Western Province), Kwagga Smith (Lions), Chris Dry, Rosko Specman and Cecil Afrika (Cheetahs) all getting a taste of the fifteens actions in 2017.
But now it’s all about their Sevens commitments, and after winning the opening leg of the 2017-18 World Sevens Series in Dubai last weekend should have been motivation enough to go for gold in Cape Town this time around.
Concerns after lengthy fifteens spells this season for some of the Sevens guys would be normal given the fact that the game of Sevens requires its own type of physical ability and conditioning, but those worries didn’t seem to be too much of a factor in Dubai.
Of course the players now need to sharpen up on their Sevens arsenal a bit better going forward, and that is obviously a big objective for Powell – who credited some of his team’s punch to their stints in the 15-man game, although there were a couple of fifteens habits to work out.
“I think it’s a very good thing that the players were exposed to fifteens,” Powell said.
“They picked up characteristics there that are going to help them a lot to be a better Sevens players.
“I think the only concern was if we would have enough time to get the guys Sevens fit.
“We needed to get them used to Sevens habits again. I think we were reasonably successful in doing that.
“But we’re not there yet, we can get 10 to 15 percent better than what we were the weekend.
“I think a lot of people saw it (Blitzboks playing fifteens) as a negative as we could have picked up a lot of injuries, but no one returned with serious injuries. “But I think we’ve been really blessed.” Powell said that although physicality is an area that his team definitely improved in thanks to their fifteens involvement, he added that there were a couple of other traits they also learnt.
“There are a lot of good things they picked up in the fifteens set-up, and one of the biggest is physicality,” he said.
“In fifteens there’s of course much less space and you have big forwards running at you, so I think that helped them a lot.
“I think we got better rugby players back at the end of the day.”
The Blitzboks coach also said that they put in a recovery session earlier this week, and that the remaining two days are all about sorting out any concerns in terms of performance he might have.