Pressure on Blitzbok youngsters to show their worth
DURBAN: This weekend marks the eighth tournament of the Sevens World Series, taking place in Singapore. There are only two more rounds after that, in London and Paris, as the Sevens season starts to wind down.
The Blitzboks, from the first tournament back in Dubai, have been leading the series with their gutsy and polished performances. They do however have some competition from teams who are starting to make a late charge. Fiji lie in second, with 123 points, which is only three short of South Africa. Clearly then, the Blitzboks are out to keep ahead of Fiji and try and make it backto-back series wins. They will be attempting to do so with Singapore looming and they will be relying on a few fresh faces who managed to impress in the tournament before, in Hong Kong.
Due to the Commonwealth Games overlapping with the Sevens World Series, there was a bit of a split squad that went to the Games, and Hong Kong. The household names were tasked with bringing back a medal for SA at the Gold Coast, but failed to do so.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, emerging stars like Zain Davids, Muller du Plessis and Selvyn Davids snapped up bronze for the Blitzboks, all the while letting the public know that there is life after Cecil Afrika, Werner Kok and Kyle Brown. A number of these next generation Blitzboks have rightly been rewarded and will feature in the squad that travels to Singapore this week.
The pressure will be on the youngsters who are looking to cement their place in the Blitzbok team as all the nations that were at the Commonwealth Games are now back at full strength, including Fiji and New Zealand.
The Blitzboks have managed back-to-back bronzemedal placings in Hong Kong, as well as Vancouver, while at the same tournaments, it has been Fiji picking up the gold. This late charge by the Islanders is what has put them in contention to pip the Blitzboks at the post should SA stumble at the last few hurdles.
The South African’s have only won gold on one occasion this year, at the opening leg in Dubai, but they have also medalled at every tournament bar the Las Vegas Sevens.
The Blitzboks play Samoa, Canada and Argentina in Pool C on Saturday.
Springbok Sevens team: Heino Bezuidenhout, Ryan Oosthuizen, Kyle Brown (captain), Zain Davids, Dylan Sage, Rosko Specman, Selvyn Davids, Cecil Afrika, Werner Kok, Stedman Gans, Muller du Plessis, Siviwe Soyizwapi, James Murphy (travelling reserve).