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JOHANNESBURG – Recently, South African sport had a purple period: two tennis players in the final at Wimbledon, two golfers winners of European and Asian tours, a MotoGP winning biker, a boxer winning a world title. Now, it's time for the Blitzboks to bring back some glory. Like the Hong Kong Sevens on the World Sevens Series circuit, the Rugby World Cup Sevens is an event that South Africa has not won yet. It's become a kind of boguey for the SA Sevens team. The South Africans qualify for the tournament, having won the World Sevens Series this season in a thrilling fight against Fiji and are seeded. The World Cup is a nervous affair. Unlike 7-a-side tournaments, where a round robin precedes a knockout phase, it is a penalty shoot-out. No round robin stage to allow some complacency. Four wins and you are the world champion. A loss and you go home. It's as simple as that. Coach Neil Powell does not have all his best players available – the list of injured is long and Kwagga Smith is playing a Super Rugby quarter-final for the Lions. Powell travels to San Fransisco with a team able to bring back the Melrose Cup for the very first time. – David O. Sullivan
From SA Rugby
The Springbok Team at 7 is Well Aware If South Africa has not yet won the Melrose Cup, it believes that the 2018 group's efforts at the Rugby World Cup in San Francisco this weekend could change the game.
Blitzbok captain Philip Snyman said he was motivated to deliver a performance that would be enough to lift the Melrose Cup for the first time at AT & T Park, but they are also aware that it will take four consecutive wins to arrive at that time.
"The format of the tournament is a direct knockout, so we will not win if we lose matches – that's the reality of this tournament," said Snyman, who also played in the 2009 and 2013 events in Dubai and Moscow respectively. the Blitzboks have been overthrown "Our first match will be against Ireland or Chile and if we think we can show ourselves just because we are the first seeds, we will be in a huge surprise."
"We have seen, especially in recent tournaments, that any team can beat anybody at this level, so we can not underestimate Ireland or Chile Both are able to beat a regular on the series if this team is not 100% on the song. "
Snyman is quietly confident that Africa South will be as competitive as they were earlier in the season, when they defended their tournament "We trained well until here," said the Blitzbok captain.
"The first two sessions had inflamed lungs and legs that sank and it was hard after our long flight. "We also participated in the last two finals of the series and won the last, so we have a form and a dynamic." 19659004] The opening match against Ireland or Chile has to set the tone for the rest of the weekend, said Snyman: "We have to start well and then build our performances from that. let's not look at the outcome of the final game, but rather how we execute our own plan. "
Source: http://www.sarugby.co.za/article.aspx?category=sarugby/sevens&id = 4347694
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