Blitzboks back in action in Vancouver and keen to make up for poor 2024 effort

South Africa’s Blitzboks are back in action this weekend, at the Vancouver Sevens tournament, the second tournament of the year and the fourth in the current series.

The Blitzboks are currently fourth in the standings after picking up 10 points in Dubai, 20 points as the winners in Cape Town and 14 in Perth towards the end of last month.

With a total of 44 points they are hot on the heels of the three teams ahead of them, namely Fiji (first, 48), Argentina (second, 48) and Spain (third, 48).

But, they are also being hotly pursued by the fifth-placed team on the log, namely France, who have 44 points.

‘Determined squad’

Australia (30), New Zealand (28) and Great Britain (20) follow next, but remain dangerous competitors.

The Blitzboks will be keen to make up for their poor showing in Vancouver last season when they finished ninth. They have previously twice won the tournament in Canada and also been runners-up twice.

A good showing this weekend will set the Blitzboks up nicely for the remainder of the tournaments, in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Blitzboks open their Vancouver challenge with a match against perennial rivals, New Zealand, on Friday night (10.02pm SA time).

Co-captain Impi Visser said the SA Sevens team were keen to right the wrongs of last season.

“Last time around, we were a bit disjointed, and it showed in our play,” said Visser.

“Credit to the management who sorted all the little niggles out, as we arrived here a happy and determined squad, cold as it may be in Vancouver.

“We had some calls not going our way in Perth, but we still played good rugby.

“We did very good work in the pre-season, so that foundation was laid and our success or not in tournaments will boil down to our execution on the day.

“We have some brilliant individual players who really bring something to the party, so the key for us is to combine as a team in order to benefit from those skilled players.”

Leading the Blitzboks

Visser, who will co-lade the team with Selvyn Davids in the absence of the injured Zain Davids, added: “A good result here (in Vancouver) will help a lot towards our build-up for the Grand Finale in a couple of months.

“We are not results driven per se, and rather focused on the execution and effort of our game plan, but a good result will be of great value to us.”

On Saturday morning (3.29am), the Blitzboks take on Ireland, with their last pool game against Australia on Saturday night at 9.36pm.