Focussed Boks have high hopes
The Springbok team is anxious to do well in Hong Kong where the sixth leg of the Sevens World Series will be held from Friday.
South Africa have never won this prestigious event and Springbok coach Paul Treu is demanding a huge effort from his team at this popular three-day tournament in the Far East.
Hong Kong is traditionally regarded as the most important tournament of the season and will this year be followed by the Tokyo Sevens.
In naming his 12-man squad, Treu decided against the inclusion of squad newcomer Dirk Dippenaar for the pressure cooker in the Hong Kong Stadium. The rookie is now set to make his debut next week in Japan. Renfred Dazel is the other non-playing squad member.
South Africa’s preparations for the tournament have been hampered by injuries to key players Kyle Brown, Paul Delport, Boom Prinsloo and Chris Dry.
However, all were eventually cleared to play.
Furthermore, the Blitzbokke travelled without the in-form Steven Hunt, who stayed behind in Cape Town to attend a family funeral.
“Our focus for these two tournaments will be on consistency, to take our opportunities and to stop the cheap tries. We are second to New Zealand when it comes to defensive statistics and we intend to keep stretching ourselves in this department.
“For us the Hong Kong tournament is always going to be special and over the past few days we’ve been talking about the fact that winning it is the one thing we’d like to achieve,” explained Treu.
The SA coach added: “The 12-team format, consisting only of core teams, will be a tough challenge and our opener against Wales will be a huge game for us. We managed a number of injuries and, as a result, our preparations for this trip were maybe less than ideal.
“New Zealand and Fiji are setting the pace and the trend at the moment and they should be main contenders in Hong Kong. Traditionally, England play well in Hong Kong and Samoa gained a lot of confidence from winning the USA title in Las Vegas,” said Treu.
South Africa is currently third in the World Series with 76 points. They open their campaign with a Pool B match against Wales on Friday this will be followed by the remaining pool matches on Saturday against the United States and New Zealand.
South Africa: Chris Dry, Boom Prinsloo, Frankie Horne, Pieter Engelbrecht, Kyle Brown (captain), Branco du Preez, Bernado Botha, Cornal Hendricks, Paul Delport, Cecil Afrika, William Small-Smith, Stephan Dippenaar.
