Blitzboks at full strength as hosts

BLITZBOK coach Neil Powell has picked the same 12 star players who won in Dubai last week for the second leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series in Cape Town at the weekend.

It was an easy decision, as there were no injuries‚ but he has changed the 13th man – the standby reserve.

Siviwe Soyizwapi comes in to replace Marco Labuschagne.

“All the players would love to play in their only home tournament on the circuit‚ so the result in Dubai made it easy for me to pick the team‚” Powell said.

“Everyone returned fit from the tournament in Dubai and will have the added motivation of playing in front of a very supportive home crowd.

“The only change is the official reserve, with Siviwe Soyizwapi in the place of Marco Labuschagne – which was part of our planning all along.

“Siviwe travelled to Dubai as captain of the SA Rugby Sevens Academy squad‚ which gave him the opportunity to get some playing time.

“He performed very well there and will slot in easily‚ should one of our players pick up an injury,” Powell said.

Defending Cape Town champions, England‚ who beat South Africa 19-17 in last year’s final‚ were third in Dubai.

It was a result that left England coach, Simon Amor, satisfied for a first outing of the season‚ which ended in a semifinal defeat against New Zealand.

“As a first tournament for us this season, I’m proud of the continuous effort and the attitude the boys displayed in every single game‚” Amor said.

“We did not quite get our decision making right, in terms of our attack – particularly in the New Zealand game, where we had some chances, but didn’t quite take them – but those are the margins at the top level.

“If we can learn from that and keep on growing, we’ll be in a good place to kick on for the rest of the season.”

Powell and the Blitzboks have displayed an air of calm throughout the hyped buildup to their home event‚ but there is no doubt they are under pressure to perform as the hosts – and the defending World Series champions.

“We needed to fine-tune a couple of things that we did not execute well in Dubai – and we did that‚” Powell said.

South Africa play Russia‚ France and Kenya in Pool A tomorrow.