Preview: Cape Town Sevens
The Blitzboks brought a breath of fresh air back to South Africa, last week beating Olympic champions Fiji 26-14 to claim the Dubai crown. Now eyes will turn to Cape Town, where the Blitzboks will be defending champions and the two-day event starting Saturday is, encouragingly for South African rugby administrators, a sell-out.
"South Africa were determined and courageous, and made one or two tackles that other teams might not have made. The Blitzboks had that real look of true grit about them in Dubai and they looked 'properly up for it'.
"And for all of us South African rugby fans, after a disappointing XVs season, it is just the tonic we needed. Our media is still very much filled with uncertainty around the Springboks and Allister Coetzee, the sentiment in the weekend newspapers was very negative. So for the Blitzboks to come out and play so well in Dubai was inspiring to all South Africans and sports lovers.
"It was the lift that South African rugby needs at the moment and I think that will add to the whole fan experience of the Cape Town Sevens. Fans are tired of watching the Springboks lose – they want to be upbeat, to be inspired and to support a winning team," Joel Stransky said of their performance in Dubai.
Blitzbok coach Neil Powell was quick, however, to warn against complacency.
"We can't come into this tournament and think we can just start where we left in Dubai. We need to start all over again. That will be the theme this week in our preparation, getting mentally prepared for Cape Town again.
"We have a really tough pool with USA, Australia and Russia so I think we are going to need a big mental shift," Powell said.
Fiji head up Pool B with France, Kenya and Japan.
"We quietly feel disappointed deep inside as we didn't complete the job last week in Dubai in that final against South Africa, so we are hungry just to go out there.
"We will look at ourselves first and how we want to prepare and make sure that we put our best foot forward and be the best version of ourselves as we try and attack this last tournament and finish 2016 on a high note," Fiji's Naca Cawanibuka said.
After an impressive performance in Round One, Simon Amor's England top a tough Pool C which also features New Zealand, Argentina and Canada.
Pool D contains Wales, Scotland, Samoa and invitational team Uganda.
Schedule – Saturday, December 10
(Kick-off is local time – GMT plus two hours)
Scotland v Samoa – 10.15
Wales v Uganda – 10.37
New Zealand v Argentina – 10.59
England v Canada – 11.21
France v Kenya – 11.43
Fiji v Japan – 12.05
Australia v USA – 12.27
South Africa v Russia – 12.49
Scotland v Uganda – 13.36
Wales v Samoa – 13.58
New Zealand v Canada – 14.20
England v Argentina – 14.42
France v Japan – 15.04
Fiji v Kenya – 15.26
Australia v Russia – 15.48
South Africa v USA – 16.10
Samoa v Uganda – 16.57
Wales v Scotland – 17.19
Argentina v Canada – 17.41
England v New Zealand – 18.03
Kenya v Japan – 18.50
Fiji v France – 19.12
South Africa v Australia – 19.56
Agence France-Presse
