Blitzboks out to finish the business
THE Blitzboks will be looking to cap a wonderful season in the HSBC Sevens World Series as they head into the penultimate round of the 2016/2017 season in Paris, looking to wrap up the world title with a tournament to spare, this weekend.
The team goes into the Paris leg with a healthy 25-point lead over Fiji in second and 27-point lead over England in third.
The Blitzboks only need to gain nine points from the Paris tournament to be crowned champions, as even if they finished last in the final leg in London, they would bag a single point which would be enough to put them out of reach of the challengers and seal the title.
This means that a seventh-place finish in Paris would be enough and that would be the Blitzboks’s worst finish in this season’s series to date, as they have already racked up four tournament wins, three runner-up finishes and in their worst showing, ended sixth in the last round in Singapore.
Despite their commanding lead and everything pointing to them taking the crown this weekend, the mood in the camp is fully on the task at hand, with the team not interested in talk about winning the title at this stage.
“I don’t think there is much of a change within the squad, the focus remains the same,” rising Blitzbok star Tim Agaba said.
“We go into each tournament focusing on the tournament itself. We don't really look too far ahead, we all acknowledge that the series hasn't been won yet and we focus on each game at a time, each tournament at a time.”
Agaba, who was raised in East London and attended Stirling High School has only recently returned from a long layoff due to injury and will be taking part in his 10th tournament for the Blitzboks.
In his previous nine tournaments he has scored 30 points, while he also picked up a bronze medal with the team at last year’s Olympic Games.
He is excited to be back on the park and confident that the team can enjoy a solid tournament in Paris.
“We feel that if we apply ourselves, if we apply our system and our processes then the results look after themselves and hopefully that will mean some success at the end of the season for us,” Agaba said.
“My job is to try and keep the standard as high as its been throughout the season so far, and I think if we focus on the controllables, and the systems and structures that are put in place, then the results look after themselves.”
Another rising star who played his junior rugby on the Border is old Dalian Siviwe Soyizwapi, who is fast becoming an integral member of the team with his deadly finishing that has seen him score 28 tries for a tally of 140 points in 10 tournaments for the Blitzboks.
The Blitzboks take on Scotland at 11.28am, Japan at 2.54pm and Canada at 6.42pm in the group stages of pool A today, with the action live on SuperSport 5.
The knockout rounds will then be battled out tomorrow.