Springbok Sevens head coach Philip Snyman reinforced his team for the Cape Town SVNS tournament with the experience of double series winner Mfundo Ndhlovu and the youth of debutant Zander Reynders as they eye a first title in the Mother City since 2015.
The duo replaces the injured Ryan Oosthuizen and Christie Grobbelaar for the home leg of the revamped series, and they will be thrown in at the deep end with the Blitzboks under pressure to perform in front of their home fans in the DHL Stadium.
Team announcement: these 13 #Blitzboks will represent South Africa at the #HSBCSVNS Cape Town this weekend - more here: https://t.co/zF64HAfjBG 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) December 5, 2024
Tickets from R250 available here: https://t.co/Kua1YLcOat 🎟#PoweredByUnity pic.twitter.com/RvlhsylcwO
Ndhlovu missed out on the first tournament in Dubai, but Snyman said it was an easy decision to rope him in to play his debut Cape Town tournament, but his 18th overall. In their quest to build depth, the lanky Reynders will get his sevens baptism of fire at home.
Both were members of the SA Sevens 'A' who won the Dubai Invitational tournament last weekend. Ndhlovu captained the side.
In a changed format, where there will only be two pool matches and two playoffs to decide the Cape Town winners, South Africa will face Ireland (11.44am) and Argentina (6.41pm) in their quest to end atop their pool to get to the semi-finals on Sunday.
“It is a big loss losing two experienced guys amongst the forwards.”
“It is a big loss losing two experienced guys amongst the forwards,” Snyman said yesterday.
“We've been fortunate over the last couple of seasons to use almost the same six forwards but the time has now come to start bleeding the new guys. Mfundo will have a double job this weekend. He is normally a centre but he will cover the backs and forwards.
“Hard work has gone in behind the scenes to ensure he understands his role. A guy like Zander coming in for Christie is a like-for-like replacement. They have the same build and are the same type of player.”
Cape Town! Who's ready? 🔥@CapeTown7s coming at you this weekend 🙌#HSBCSVNS | #HSBCSVNSCPT pic.twitter.com/YNqYY81DLu
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) December 4, 2024
Snyman said they showed glimpses of the way they want to perform in Dubai, but they still have some work to do to reach the standards that they set for themselves.
Tomorrow morning, they must hit the ground running to stand a chance of qualifying for the playoffs. One loss can be enough to end their tournament early.
“There are a couple of key things we adjusted this week and if we can do it better over the weekend, the team will perform better. But Dubai was not all bad, although there were hard words and some introspection.”
Snyman knows they have a lot of pressure on them, especially from their home crowd, but they plan to embrace the opportunity and focus on their plan to put in more consistent performances.
“We are trying to do things differently and cut the noise out from the outside to make sure we listen to the right voices and have a tight group going into the tournament.”
He added that the team has spoken about the challenges of playing in front of your home crowd.
“We are trying to do things differently and cut the noise out from the outside to make sure we listen to the right voices and have a tight group going into the tournament.
“The focus is to go and do the job. We know we will have a massive support base.”
Blitzboks squad: Impi Visser (co-captain, 40 tournaments), Zain Davids (co-captain, 48), Ricardo Duarttee (13), Shaun Williams (18), Dewald Human (26), Siviwe Soyizwapi (54), Shilton van Wyk (21), Mfundo Ndhlovu (17), Quewin Nortje (7), Donavan Don (4), David Brits (4), Zander Reynders (uncapped), Tristan Leyds (6).