Time for the men to play ball and run wild
dubai — The preps are over, the talks done with, the war paint has been applied, and it’s almost time to play ball and run wild.
After the women got things rolling at The Sevens Stadium on Thursday, the men will be up and running in the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens, the first stop of the HSBC Sevens World Series, on Friday.
After acing through most of last season to win the 10-part Series, South Africa will be the team to beat this time around.
But in a format like the 7s, the abridged version of rugby, it is the possibility of the unknown that lurks around the corner.
With Dubai heralding the start of a new season, Philip Snyman, the Blitzboks captain, said it all starts from zero.
“Dubai has been a happy hunting ground for us in the past, but this is a new season and everyone are starting with fresh minds and bodies,” said Snyman.
“Even our squad, as experienced as we are, came back together with new energy and new vigour,” he added.
Snyman reckoned it wouldn’t be an easy road ahead considering the fact that most of the other squads have remained together for a while now and are looking more settled.
“We will see a lot of the teams more settled this season, with not as many new faces and coaches as was the case last year when we started the season here in Dubai. So, it is definitely going to be tougher this time around. We need to be at our best from the start,” he said.
South Africa begin their title defence with a match against Uganda in Pool A.
The Blitzboks had defeated heavyweights Fiji in last year’s final but Snyman said that it was a thing of the past.
“We already left last season behind when we started our new preseason camp. We needed to make that mind shift. The focus now goes to that first match against Uganda. We need to be ready for that match and take it from there,” said Snyman.
South Africa will face competition from four-time winners England, who finished runners-up in the Series last year.
England, who are in Pool B, alongside, Scotland, France and Spain, are captained by Tom Mitchell.
“There’s a lot of excitement about the Commonwealth Games and Rugby World Cup Sevens, which in addition to the World Series makes this a huge season for Sevens,” said coach Simon Amor.
“For us to build momentum going into these pivotal tournaments it’s important for us to focus on giving our very best performance in Dubai as the number one priority. After a long pre-season for our senior players, we’ve prepared well and want to kick-start this season in a really positive way,” he added.
The England party are without Dan Bibby and Alex Davis because of injuries. Bibby is recuperating from an injury to his left arm, while Davis is tending to an injury to his left hand.
“It’s disappointing that we have a couple of injuries in Alex and Dan who will both hopefully be back for Sydney and Hamilton, but this provides a great opportunity for Ben Howard, who was brilliant for us in Munich at the Oktoberfest Sevens recently,” said Amor.
Fiji, Australia, Wales and Russia are in Pool C, while New Zealand, USA, Argentina and Samoa make up Pool D.