Blitzboks suffer Afrika knee injury blow ahead of Wellington and Sydney legs

18 January 2017 - 16:51 By Craig Ray
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The Blitzboks suffered a major setback for the next two rounds of the HSBC World Sevens Series with the news that star playmaker Cecil Afrika will miss the tour.

Afrika‚ a veteran of 238 matches and a scorer of 1167 points‚ suffered a knee injury during training at the team’s Stellenbosch base earlier this week and was on Wednesday ruled out of the next two tournaments in Wellington and Sydney.

The SA Sevens team are already without key forward Kyle Brown for the remainder of the season after the former skipper tore knee ligaments during the Cape Town tournament last month.

But the misfortune for Afrika and Brown offer chances to 2016 Junior Springbok star Zain Davids and the improving Siviwe Soyizwapi for the next two events in Wellington and Sydney.

The Blitzboks are top of the overall standings on 41 points after winning the season opener in Dubai and finishing runners-up at Cape Town.

  • The Blitzboks were the nearly-men of Sevens rugby in 2016The Blitzboks showed remarkable consistency during the 2015-16 HSBC World Sevens Series‚ but lacked the killer punch when it mattered. 

England are second with 39 and Fiji third on 32 points. These tournaments‚ the third and fourth in the series‚ will be played in the New Zealand capital on 28 and 29 January‚ and in Australia on 4 and 5 February respectively.

Soyizwapi and Davids‚ who is making his Springbok Sevens debut in Wellington‚ are the only new faces in the squad from the opening two rounds of the series.

“We have lost over 100 tournaments worth of experience with Kyle and Cecil out of action‚” coach Neil Powell said.

“That said‚ we always knew that we needed to bring new players into the system and Zain was earmarked as one of them.

"He has shown a good appetite for sevens and will now be tested at the highest level.

“Shakes (Soyizwapi) played for us last year and will be keen to establish himself in the side‚ especially as Seabelo Senatla will be moving to fifteens.

  • Kolbe to leave the Stormers after Super Rugby seasonFrench club Toulouse announced on Wednesday they have signed Stormers fullback Cheslin Kolbe.  

"He did very well in the warm-up tournament in Namibia late last year and I am pleased to have him in the playing squad.”

Davids‚ who represented the Junior Springboks as a flank at the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in 2016‚ will make his debut for the Blitzboks in New Zealand after a successful start with the SA Rugby Sevens Academy in Dubai last year.

Soyizwapi was part of the squad in Dubai and Cape Town as the official back-up player.

He sat on the bench for the Blitzboks in their final of the HSBC Cape Town Sevens against England when star wing Seabelo Senatla could not complete the tournament due to a quad strain.

Good news is that Senatla was declared fit for his final two tournaments for the Blitzboks before transferring to the Stormers team for Super Rugby.

  • Blow for Blitzboks as injury rules Brown out for entire seasonThe Blitzboks will be up against it for the remainder of the World Sevens Series with the news that influential forward Kyle Brown will miss the rest of the season. 

He will be keen to add to his overall try tally of 172‚ which is only seven shy of the Springbok Sevens record of 179 career tries held by Fabian Juries.

“We have a tough pool in Wellington‚ but I am happy with the way the guys trained and came back from the break‚" Powell said.

The Springbok Sevens are grouped with Olympic Games gold medallists‚ Fiji‚ in Pool B‚ as well as Australia and Japan‚ their first opponent in the Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

Sandile Ngcobo‚ who made his Blitzboks debut at Wellington last year‚ will take Soyizwapi’s spot as the reserve player.

The Springbok Sevens team for Wellington and Sydney is:

1. Chris Dry (54 tournaments‚ 380 points) 2. Philip Snyman (captain‚ 39‚ 231) 3. Dylan Sage (9‚ 45) 4. Kwagga Smith (26‚ 255) 5. Werner Kok (21‚ 250) 6. Zain Davids (debut) 7. Branco du Preez (47‚ 922) 8. Rosko Specman (15‚ 196) 9. Justin Geduld (27‚ 594) 10. Siviwe Soyizwapi (4‚ 30) 11. Ruhan Nel (13‚ 125) 12. Seabelo Senatla (31‚ 860) 13. Sandile Ngcobo (2‚ 10)* * Reserve Player

- TMG Digital

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