Blitzboks coach Neil Powell has retained the same squad for the Cape Town Sevens following last weekend’s win in Dubai.

Understandably, Powell has named an unchanged squad for Cape Town’s sold-out tournament where they will be aiming to go one better than last year, when they finished as runners-up.

‘All the players would love to play in their only home tournament on the circuit, so the result at the Dubai Sevens made it easy for me to pick the team,’ Powell said.

‘Everyone returned fit from that tournament and will have the added motivation of playing in front of a very supportive home crowd.

‘The only change to our squad is the official reserve – we have included Siviwe Soyizwapi in the place of Marco Labuschagne – which was part of our planning all along.’

Powell admitted that he was feeling slightly nervous as the tournament approached, but he is comfortable that his squad prepared well.

‘We needed to fine-tune a couple of things that we did not execute well in Dubai. We still have two training sessions left this week, so we have to ensure the players are mentally ready for the big event.’

South Africa will play Russia, France and Kenya in Pool A of the competition on Saturday.

Blitzboks: Chris Dry, Philip Snyman, Tim Agaba, Kwagga Smith, Werner Kok, Kyle Brown, Branco du Preez, Rosko Specman, Justin Geduld, Cecil Afrika, Seabelo Senatla, Ruhan Nel, Siviwe Soyizwapi (reserve).

Photo: Tom Dulat/Getty Images