Stedman Gans steps up to lead Blitzboks squad

Stedman Gans will captain the Springbok Sevens squad to Hamilton and Sydney for the third and fourth tournaments of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, taking over the captaincy armband from the injured Siviwe Soyizwapi.

The Australasian leg of the World Series will be played in Hamilton next weekend (January 25-26) and in Sydney a week later (February 1-2 ).

The Blitzboks are departing for New Zealand on Saturday.

Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell made seven changes to the squad that won the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens and were losing finalists at the HSBC Cape Town Sevens late last year, including handing the captaincy to Gans for the first time.

Dylan Sage, Rosko Specman (Vodacom Bulls), Ruhan Nel and Seabelo Senatla (DHL Stormers) have returned to their Vodacom Super Rugby teams, Soyizwapi and Kurt-Lee Arendse were ruled out due to ankle and knee strains respectively, and Ryan Oosthuizen is rotated with Werner Kok, who is returning to the squad after his short stint in France at the end of last year. Angelo Davids, Branco du Preez, Impi Visser, Cecil Afrika, Muller du Plessis and Gans are the new players in the team, while Sako Makata has also recovered from injury and will travel along as the official reserve.

Du Preez (71 tournaments) is the most experienced Blitzbok in the World Series and Afrika the highest points scorer (1,440 points), and they afford Powell the luxury of well-proven experience alongside the younger crop of Blitzboks.

Powell was mindful of all the changes to the squad, but said it was part of the season’s planning.

“We knew we would be losing the four players to their Vodacom Super Rugby teams after the opening two tournaments, and the whole squad are aware of our plans for the remainder of the season,” Powell said.

“It is great to have the likes of Branco, Cecil and Werner back as well as Stedman, Muller and Angelo, all of whom played well during our warm-up tournaments in Germany, Kenya and England last year. —