Blitzboks have to bury World Cup hoodoo in San Francisco

The Blitzboks know the can beat any Sevens team on the planet and statistically are currently the top team in the world.

Now all they have to do is believe it‚ as they attempt to win the Sevens World Cup for the first time.

The 2018 World Cup takes place at San Francisco’s AT&T Stadium this weekend and South Africa are the number one seeds after two years of World Sevens Series dominance.

But that will count for little in a competition played in a straight knockout format. SA also has a lot of mental scarring from previous World Cup failures‚ but they couldn’t be in better shape to win the title for the first time.

With 24 teams competing the top eight seeds in the men’s draw have a bye in the first round with the other 16 teams competing for eight places in round two.

The likes of South Africa‚ Fiji and New Zealand only come into the frame in the last 16. The Blitzboks are set to face either Ireland or Chile in their first match.

The top teams only have to win four games to be crowned world champions. The format won’t place the same physical demands on players as World Sevens Series events where they have to play six games in two days.

But the Sevens World Cup will be mentally taxing because it’s a cutthroat straight knockout competition‚ heightening stress levels‚ emphasizing mistakes and adding pressure.

“I am not too worried about the physical side of things‚” said SA coach Neil Powell.

“We had a number of great training sessions‚ held two productive training camps and since our arrival here‚ we have played a warm-up match against Argentina.

"Everything went well‚ so I am pretty pleased with that.”

Powell said the ability to stay focused on the task ahead could be their biggest challenge.

“We need to get out of the blocks well against the winner of the match between Chile and Ireland.

"The problem is that the winner of that encounter will be playing their second match of the day‚ and they will have some momentum and confidence when they play us. We start from scratch and that could count against us.”

The Blitzboks have to hang around until 21:15 local time on Friday for their first match‚ which means an entire day of trying to keep players alert‚ yet relaxed. It is not going to be an easy task.

"It will be a very long day for us‚” said the Blitzbok coach. “Our opponents will play much earlier and then have a good break before they face us‚ which is not ideal.

“We have seen this year that no team can be underestimated‚ so we will need to be ready come Friday evening‚” said Powell‚ who added that they had adapted their schedule slightly to ensure they are at their best when their first match starts.

“We changed some of our sessions around and also played against Argentina in a chukka‚ which helped a lot. The guys have shown a good appetite this week and I am happy that we will be delivering a strong performance.”

Captain Philip Snyman said the team was confident after winning the final leg of the World Series in Paris.

“You have to be at your best from the get go and get out of the blocks as quickly as possible‚” Snyman said. “Where the World Series was a marathon‚ this is more like a one hundred metre sprint. 



"We can take a lot of confidence from our performance in Paris and we’ve had a boost with a couple of players returning from injury so we’re really happy with where the squad is at the moment.”

*The SA Women’s Sevens team take on Russia in their first match

Captain Zintle Mpupha said they are well prepared for this clash and are keen to get started‚ despite the odds stacked against them against one of the tournament favourites.

“Russia is one of the strong teams in the HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series and they have played really well in the series‚” said Mpupha.

“We are not starters in the World Series‚ so we do not have the benefit of regular tournament competition. But we trained hard because we want to measure ourselves against teams with core status‚ such as Russia.

“We want to play against those teams and we want to try and beat them. That is a clear objective of the squad.

"We have worked hard for this opportunity at the Rugby World Cup Sevens and will make a determined effort to deliver a performance to justify our hard work.”