BlitzBoks set sights on Olympics
The BlitzBoks were dealt a cruel blow when they lost two of their most experienced players ahead of Round Three of the Sevens World Series – with knee injuries to Kyle Brown and Cecil Afrika ruling both out for lengthy periods.
Brown injured his knee in Round Two, the Cape Town leg, of the Series, and will be out of action for at least six months after undergoing successful surgery.
Afrika injured his knee in training earlier this week, resulting in him also being sidelined or an extended period – although the exact length of his rehabilitation period is yet to be determined.
Zain Davids, a Junior Springbok star in 2016, and Siviwe Soyizwapi have been called up.
"We have lost over 100 tournaments worth of experience with Kyle and Cecil out of action," Powell said.
However, he felt now might be an ideal time to introduce some young players.
"This is the first year of a four-year cycle, leading up to the next Olympics [in Tokyo in 2020]," the BlitzBok mentor said.
"We said from the start of the season we would like to try out some youngsters, bring them into the system and see if they can cope at this level against the best teams and individuals in Sevens.
"Zain [Davids] showed a lot of promise at the Junior World Championship last year. We brought him into the system in November and he has worked really hard.
"We think he has the attributes to make it in Sevens.
"Obviously we will miss the experience of Kyle Brown and Cecil Afrika, but it is not necessity a bad thing to call-up a player like Zain. We need to see what these young players are capable of and this is the season to do it."
The BlitzBoks head into the Wellington leg of the Sevens World Series sitting pretty top of the standings – with 41 points after winning the Dubai leg and losing in the Final to England in Cape Town.
The Springbok Sevens team is drawn alongside Australia, Fiji and Japan in Pool B in Wellington.
"I know we've got a very tough pool, so our focus will be that first game against Japan," Powell said.
"They've shown that they can beat the bigger sides, [as they did against] New Zealand at the Olympics, so we must make sure that we don't underestimate them. We should not be complacent against them and hopefully if we get through that one nicely we can shift out focus to Australia.
"We also got a tough cross-over with Pool C – which has New Zealand, Samoa, America and France – so it's going to be a good test of character for us and I think hopefully we can get through that test," he added.
Powell spoke of the need to maintain their consistency in both their attacking game play and their defensive structure throughout the tournament.
"We need consistency in all six games. You can't afford to have one weak moment in any of the games and that's what cost us in the past. We played some good rugby and then we came to a quarterfinal or semifinal and we had weak moments in those games that cost us."
By Josh Isaacson
@isaacson_j
@rugby365com
