A settled Sage ready to impact Sevens
LAST year when Dylan Sage made his Springbok Sevens debut at the Cape Town leg of the World Sevens Series, the then-rookie was a very different player to what he is now.
Nowadays Sage seems more settled on the field. He gets involved more. And he says that he has become much “calmer” with every tournament in which he’s played.
So, now Sage is looking to continue that upward growth curve when the Blitzbokke defend their Cape Town title this weekend.
“It’s been quite a roller-coaster year. I feel that it’s gone really well. It feels like I have progressed with every tournament. And then, obviously, going to the Olympics was the cherry on top of the cake.
“I think it’s going to be nice. Your first tournament is always a bit of a tough one. I played a few tournaments and I played at the Olympics. So, I feel that I’m a lot calmer and I can actually get on the field and do my thing,” Sage said.
As with all other XVs players who make the transition to the abbreviated game, the strength and conditioning aspects were the toughest to crack for Sage, who represented the Western Province Under-21 side in 2012 and 2013, before moving to Perth to join the Force’s wider training group for Super Rugby in 2014.
“It was tough. Sevens has a much higher conditioning threshold than XVs. So, it takes a while. I was lucky I came in on the first day of pre-season last year, so I had a good three months to get my conditioning up.
“It does take a while to get used to the speed and conditioning. But I think it’s just about knuckling down and doing the best you can,” he said.
Sage seems to be enjoying the new code, and when asked about his future plans, he said: “I’ve just signed with Sevens for the next two years, so I’ll be a Sevens man for at least the rest of the circuit.”
After the Blitzbokke’s success in Dubai last week, where they were dominant on attack, defence, and the breakdowns, Sage attributed their fine work, especially on the ground, to simple patience – and composure.
“We work really hard on both our attack and defence, but especially our defence. I think this year we weren’t impatient at the breakdowns and we backed our defence. We were very composed.”
The Springbok Sevens side were also packed with experience going into the opening tournament, which gave the side a massive boost in terms of continuity and cohesion.
“I think we were quite lucky to have kept most of our squad together. It helped us retain our continuity and momentum. We had a solid pre-season – we started a little bit later so that the guys could rest after the Olympics. And I think that rest did a lot of guys good.
“I think we can just take that confidence and momentum that we gained in Dubai into Cape Town.”
There is also a lot of competition in the side in terms of positions, and all that internal competition is another thing that Sage finds beneficial to the squad.
“It’s very tight for certain positions, but it’s a good thing. It’s always good to have competition. It betters everyone in the squad. So if we can keep this internal competition going and guys bringing their best, it’s going to be a successful year.”