Powell flies in replacements for Sevens’ Paris finale

BLITZBOK COACH Neil Powell has called up Dewald Human and Mfundo Ndhlovu to replace Cecil Afrika and Branco du Preez in the Springbok Sevens squad for the Paris Sevens this weekend.

Afrika (hamstring) and Du Preez (shoulder) were unfortunate casualties on the first day of last week’s London Sevens and they have returned home for treatment.

Human made his debut for the Blitzboks in Paris last year and captained the side to Hong Kong in March, where they won bronze.

Ndhlovu, who debuted in Hong Kong earlier this season, will join the squad as 13th player. Stedman Gans, who travelled to London as the official reserve, has been promoted to the starting squad.

Powell would have dearly loved to have had the services of the injured pair at Twickenham for a tournament the South Africans had to win if they were to overhaul Fiji at the top of the World Series. Instead, Fiji beat the Boks in the final and stretched their overall lead to seven points with just the Paris Sevens remaining.

Afrika and Du Preez played in 61 tournaments respectively for the Blitzboks and are South Africa’s leading points’ scorers of all time. Afrika has amassed 1430 points in 318 matches for his country and Du Preez has 1162 points in 305 matches.

Leading Blitzboks try-scorer, Seabelo Senatla, meanwhile said the team will come back stronger following their 21-17 defeat to Fiji.

Senatla made a return to the Blitzboks in London after playing Super Rugby for the Stormers and played off the bench as part of his re-integration. He scored a memorable try against Samoa on the first day at Twickenham and added his 221th try for the team against England in the Cup semi-finals on Sunday.

“Sevens is all about scoring when you have opportunities and Fiji did that better than us,” said Senatla. “We will work on that and come back a stronger team in Paris. We would like to get another shot at them and turn the tables.

“My return to the squad was good; the coach managed me well. It was the right thing to start with Shakes (Siviwe Soyizwapi), as he is playing well this season and I was happy to play off the bench. Now the focus will be on Paris and to finish the World Series on a high.”

Fiji’s lead at the top of the standings is virtually unassailable the Blitzboks will need some good fortune at the Stade Jean Bouin if they want to retain the title. They face Canada, Russia, and Scotland in Pool B of the tournament. BONGI MBONAMBI is set to fill the hooker berth in the Springbok starting team when they take on England in Joburg this weekend.

Mbonambi only returned to action three weeks ago after undergoing emergency surgery on a burst appendix in February. He was a full-time member of the squad last season though, understudying Malcolm Marx on most occasions.

Marx is unavailable for the series after hurting his knee in Super Rugby in early May. And, the most experienced hooker in new coach Rassie Erasmus’ squad, Bismarck du Plessis, will only join his teammates today after playing for Montpellier in the Top 14 final in France at the weekend.

Erasmus, said Du Plessis, with 79 Test caps to his name, will only be considered for the second Test in Bloemfontein next week.

“You ideally want to pick a guy with some Tests behind him, but it is what it is,” he said in reference to not having Marx and Du Plessis available this week.

“Bongi has Test experience, he’s always in top fitness, and he had an appendix problem ... it’s not like he’s had to go through rehabilitation on a muscle or something. He will be in the mix this week, and then I’ll have to choose between Akker (van der Merwe) and Chiliboy (Ralepelle). Bismarck will come into contention from next week.”

The other outstanding member of the squad of 43 who has yet to arrive in Joburg is utility back Frans Steyn, who also featured in the Montpellier versus Castres final. He will only arrive tomorrow

“Neither Frans and Bismarck will be considered for action this week,” Erasmus said. “It won’t be fair on them as they haven’t trained with the other guys and it won’t be fair on the guys who’ve been part of the squad up to now.”

Erasmus further stated that all 15 of the players who stayed behind in Joburg last weekend and didn’t travel to Washington for the Test against Wales would be involved in the Ellis Park Test. “And then we need a further eight players to make up the 23, so we have to decide on combinations and who best to use,” said Erasmus.

The Boks will be hoping for better weather conditions than in the US capital on Saturday, which Erasmus said forced them into employing a kicking game – something he doesn’t want his team’s to be known for.

“It was wet and humid and turned into a kicking battle,” said Erasmus in explaining the over-used box-kick tactics employed by the Boks in the 20-22 defeat. “Hell no, I don’t want us to box kick all the time.” The Bok boss added that while the performance in Washington was poor it would not rub off – mentally – on the men who stayed behind and who are in the running to start against Eddie Jones’ team on Saturday. “When you lose a Test your confidence does take a dip, but the good thing is the players who stayed behind weren’t part of that (in Washington). Their focus shifted to England straight after the guys left for Washington last week.”