Blitzboks on a mission in Wellington

23 January 2017 - 15:10 By Craig Ray
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Blitzbok coach Neil Powell. File photo
Blitzbok coach Neil Powell. File photo
Image: Ziyaad Douglas / Gallo Images

The Blitzboks arrived in Wellington‚ New Zealand‚ on Sunday evening with a mission to extend their lead at the top of the World Sevens Series standings this weekend.

The third leg of the 10 leg series takes place in New Zealand’s capital with the South Africans leading the standings on 41 points after winning the first round in Dubai and finishing runners-up in round two in Cape Town.

Mother City winners England are second on the standings with 39 points and current World Series and Olympic champions Fiji are third on 32 points.

New Zealand and Scotland share fourth spot on 27 points. For the Blitzboks the first challenge is overcoming jet lag by the weekend to ensure that they are playing at optimum level.

Their second‚ and bigger challenge‚ will be finding their rhythm without the injured‚ experienced duo of playmaker Cecil Afrika and star forward Kyle Brown.

Springbok Sevens wing Siviwe Soyizwapi‚ who replaced Afrika‚ will play at this venue for the first time since making his Blitzbok debut last season and he's pretty excited to contribute to the team. Soyizwapi travelled with the Springbok Sevens as the reserve player to the opening two legs of the series‚ but has not yet played.

Naturally he is keen to see some action. “I am very excited as it is my first time at the tournament and I am keen for it to start‚" Soyizwapi said soon after the team arrived in New Zealand on Sunday‚ after a short stopover in Sydney.

The Blitzboks left South Africa on Saturday afternoon. “I have learned a lot travelling with the guys‚ but ultimately‚ you need to play to put that in practice.

"So this time I am looking forward to doing my part on the field and contribute there.” Teammate Rosko Specman suggested that the players were raring to go after spending the last six weeks training. “We had a short‚ but relaxing break‚ but we are keen to get going again‚” Specman said.

“We prepared well for this and the guys are getting sharper and sharper as the tournament approaches. “We all believe if the team plays well‚ the individual will also shine‚ so it has to be a team effort first.”

After sellout crowds in Cape Town and Dubai‚ Wellington ticket sales have been slow‚ putting increasing pressure on World Rugby to consider a different venue for the third leg of the series. Last week only 15000 tickets per day had been sold.

The Wespac Stadium has a capacity of 34500. At the Cape Town Stadium over 100000 fans attended the two-day showpiece in December.

But despite the slow uptake on tickets‚ NZ Rugby sevens general manager Steve Dunbar told the local press that they were ‘happy’. "The tournament's had a lot of success‚ but we need to change it‚” Dunbar said. “We've done that.

"We've reduced price‚ we've addressed entertainment‚ and we’ve addressed food offerings.

"We've listened to the fans‚ and we're happy with where we're tracking at the moment. "We've got an agreement with World Rugby for three more years and we've got an agreement in place with Wellington Rugby for three more years.

“Our focus is to deliver a very good tournament‚ then we'll go through a thorough debrief and we'll look at things from operational‚ commercial and marketing‚ and we'll make some decisions from there."

The Blitzboks‚ who lost to New Zealand in last year's final at the Westpac Stadium‚ will face Japan (01h09 SA time)‚ Australia (04h33 SA time) and Fiji (08h18 SA time) in Pool B on Saturday.

- TMG Digital

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