Independent on Saturday

Some new faces in the Bok Sevens line-up

WYNONA LOUW wynona.louw@inl.co.za

SPRINGBOK Sevens coach Neil Powell has named four uncapped players in his 13-man squad to travel to Canada this weekend for tournaments in Vancouver and Edmonton later this month.

Ronald Brown, Darren Adonis and Shaun Williams will all make their first World Rugby Sevens Series trip, while Christie Grobbelaar is in line to make his first appearance for the Blitzboks. He travelled with the team to Dubai in 2019 as 13th player.

While this will be Brown’s first World Series tournament, he represented South Africa at the Olympic Games in Japan. The Blitzboks will open their 2021-22 campaign at BC Place in Vancouver next weekend.

Adonis has played for the SA Rugby Sevens Academy, while Williams will make his international debut after joining the SA Rugby Sevens Academy last year.

Powell included a number of World Series regulars for the trip.

Ryan Oosthuizen has recovered from the injury that ruled him out of Olympic Games contention, while Dewald Human returns to the squad having last played at the Paris Sevens in 2019.

Sako Makata, Zain Davids, Angelo

Davids, JC Pretorius, skipper Siviwe Soyizwapi and Brown are all in the mix. Experienced campaigners Branco du Preez, Selvyn Davids and Justin Geduld, however, were not considered due to injury. Stedman Gans, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Ruhan Nel aren’t included, as Gans and Arendse have rejoined the Bulls, while Nel has returned to the Stormers camp.

Powell is looking forward to the energy the new guys will bring.

“We do have a number of players unavailable, but the debutants have been knocking on the door while playing for the Academy side in various invitational tournaments around the world and Ronald even forced his way into the Olympic squad,” said Powell.

“This is their opportunity to show they are ready to become World Series regulars and I have a lot of confidence in their abilities.”

Powell said that while the injuries to Davids, Geduld and Du Preez were setbacks, it has created opportunities for the debutants.

“Another plus is the fact that we are back playing in the World Series again,” added the Blitzbok coach.

“It has been quite a while since that last tournament in Vancouver in 2020 and it does feel like some normality coming back, travelling to Canada and playing again.

“It is a pity Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, Australia and Argentina are not able to travel to Canada, but I believe this will still be a very competitive tournament. The fact that there will be crowds will also boost the players.”

The pools and match schedules will be announced by World Rugby this weekend.

BLITZBOKS: Christie Grobbelaar, Ryan Oosthuizen, Sako Makata, Zain Davids, Angelo Davids, JC Pretorius, Ronald Brown, Shaun Williams, Darren Adonis, Dewald Human, Siviwe Soyizwapi (c), Muller du Plessis, James Murphy.

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2021-09-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

http://independentonsaturday.pressreader.com/article/281741272541060

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