The Springbok Sevens team are ready to let the ‘Gino’ out of the bottle when they face Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand in their pool at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, which moves to a new venue this year, the 50,000-seater Kai Tak Stadium.
There is a real belief amongst the players in the Springbok Sevens squad that they are improving as a team and doing the right things well has become a blueprint for them, according to experienced forward Ryan Oosthuizen, who arrived in Hong Kong this week for a seventh time as a Blitzbok.
Fifty seven tournaments into his HSBC SVNS career, Siviwe Soyizwapi returns to Hong Kong for a sixth time, older and wiser, but just as determined as he was in 2016, when he made his Blitzbok debut at the Hong Kong Stadium.
Springbok speedster Cheslin Kolbe became the first backline player since 2013 to take the prestigious SA Rugby Men’s Player of the Year title at a glittering SA Rugby Awards ceremony at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town, while Nadine Roos took home the top women’s award for a second time.
After winning gold twice and silver twice at BC Place in Vancouver in earlier versions of the Canadian leg of HSBC SVNS, the Springbok Sevens squad are well aware of their underwhelming performances in recent seasons.
Zander Reynders says he will have a bigger role to play for the Blitzboks when they participate in the HSBC SVNS in Canada.
Sebastiaan Jobb will make a return to HSBC SVNS after almost two years while Tristan Leyds is fit and ready for more Springbok Sevens duty in the 2025 season after the duo have been recalled to the Blitzbok team for the fourth tournament of the current series, next weekend in Vancouver.
The Springbok Sevens’ performance on the final day of the HSBC SVNS Perth was not what he expected, but Blitzbok coach Philip Snyman was still happy about their fourth-place finish as that was one of their objectives at the start of the season.
“To be the best you have to beat the best. We want to be the best team in Perth this weekend so we know what we need to do.”
When he wore the green and gold for the Springbok Sevens the first time – on 28 January 2017 in Wellington, New Zealand – Zain Davids was the proudest man alive and on Friday, eight years later, he will again be on cloud nine when he runs out in his 50th HSBC SVNS tournament for the Blitzboks in Perth.