BLITZBOKS SQUAD RETAINED
Winning Dubai squad retained for Cape Town leg of series
BLITZBOKS coach Neil Powell has unsurprisingly retained the same experienced 12-man squad for the Cape Town leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series‚ which kicks off in the Mother City tomorrow.
After winning the 2016-17 series’ opening tournament in Dubai last week‚ Powell was never likely to change the team willingly.
Fortunately, minor niggles for captain Philip Snyman and Kwagga Smith were not serious and they were cleared for duty on home soil.
The Blitzboks were dominant in Dubai, winning all six of their matches‚ which included a superb 40-0 win over New Zealand in the quarterfinals and a 26-14 win over Olympic gold medallists Fiji in the final.
The squad that will attempt to defend its Cape Town title‚ as well as claim its fourth consecutive South African leg title after winning in Port Elizabeth in 2013 and 2014‚ has a combined 375 tournament caps.
That makes the Blitzboks easily the most experienced of the 16 teams in the tournament.
“We are fortunate to be able to field an experienced squad again‚” Powell said.
“There were niggles from Dubai‚ but those were expected as the guys had not played for a couple of months. Luckily, we came back from Dubai with no serious injuries and lots of belief in our systems.”
Powell introduced some special measures this week to try to refocus the team’s goals and mindset.
“We had to start from scratch again,” he said.
“The players are experienced enough to be able to do that themselves‚ so I hope the triggers we provided will be successful.”
South Africa will face Russia‚ USA and Australia in Pool A on a tough opening day.
“We need to be sharp on Saturday‚ as it is a dangerous pool‚ with all three teams capable of beating a more favoured team‚” Powell said.
“The fact that we play at home will lift the players‚ no doubt‚ but we cannot just rock up and expect the crowd to motivate us and win the games for us with their support.
“We need to deliver and get them in the game.”
Snyman admitted that expectations at home were always huge.
“We realise our fans are looking at us to deliver the goods and we want nothing else‚” he said.
“We only have this great opportunity to play at home once every year and are determined to give it our best shot.”
The Springbok Sevens team:
1 Chris Dry (53 tournaments‚ 370 points), 2 Philip Snyman (captain‚ 38‚ 221), 3 Dylan Sage (8‚ 40), 4 Kwagga Smith (25‚ 255), 5 Werner Kok (20‚ 225), 6 Kyle Brown (46‚ 390), 7 Branco du Preez (46‚ 901), 8 Rosko Specman (14‚ 179), 9 Justin Geduld (26‚ 583), 10 Cecil Afrika (46‚ 1144), 11 Ruhan Nel (12‚ 115), 12 Seabelo Senatla (30‚ 840) Reserve: 13 Siviwe Soyizwapi (3‚ 30)