Rugby Sevens: Redemption time for South Africa's Blitzboks
The Blitzboks last season bowed out with their worst result on the World Rugby Sevens Series finishing seventh to miss out on automatic qualification for Paris 2024. The South Africans will be desperate to mend their battered reputation.
Rugby Sevens
Considered one of the powerhouses on the international Rugby Sevens circuit, South Africa’s Blitzboks suffered a spectacular fall from grace in 2023 missing automatic qualification for Paris 2024.
The Olympic bronze medallists will be on a redemption mission over the 2023/24 season with a glimmer of hope remaining that they could still make it to next year’s quadrennial showpiece in the French capital.
South Africa needed to finish among the top four teams in the World Rugby Sevens Series at the end of the 2022/23 season to earn automatic qualification for Paris 2024. This seemed like a mere formality for the Blitzboks who finished in the top four in all but five of the 23 tournaments since its inception in 1999.
Blitzboks: Going from bad to worse
South Africa is after New Zealand the most successful team in the tournament winning the annual series four times, finishing runners-up on nine occasions, and bagging bronze once. The Blitzboks finished on the podium on Sevens rugby’s debut at Rio 2016 where they finished overall and fifth in Tokyo 2020 (in 2021).
But the wheels came off unceremoniously for the 2021 World Rugby Sevens Series champions finishing last season in seventh place. After automatically qualifying for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, South Africa now needed to win the Rugby Africa Sevens Olympic Qualifier in Harare, Zimbabwe in September.
To add insult to injury, the Blitzboks suffered a disastrous 17-12 defeat to Kenya in the final of the continental qualifier missing a second chance to book their ticket for Paris. One last opportunity remains at the World Rugby Final Olympic Repechage Tournament to be held at the conclusion of the World Rugby Sevens Series 2024. The winner of the 12-team competition will walk away with the last available quota.
Blitzboks: A changing of the guard
But what went wrong for one of the mainstays of Sevens Rugby and can they salvage their bruised reputation?
Changes abound ahead of the last season would have played no small part in what can only be described as an annus horribilis. The team’s management was almost completely overhauled with long-time coach Neil Powell leaving the set-up at the end of 2022.
Powell was the architect behind some of the team’s greatest successes including back-to-back World Series titles, two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and the Olympic bronze medal.
Former Blitzboks players Sandile Ngcobo and Philip Snyman stepped into the void as head coach and deputy in what resulted in a baptism of fire. To add to their initiation, the duo had to go into battle at various stages of the campaign without some of the stalwarts in their ranks due to injuries.
In addition to taking on the best in the world with a relatively new-look squad, there were injuries to senior personnel such as Selvyn Davids, Justin Geduld and captain Siviwe Soyizwapi.
Bllitzboks: Fixing a battered reputation
The Blitzboks will have a more settled outfit going into the season-opening tournament of the rebranded SVNS Series (World Rugby Sevens Series) that will kick off in Dubai, UAE on 2 December. South Africa will be looking to get their groove back starting in Dubai which is effectively a second home for the Blitzboks. They are the most successful team in the desert winning 10 out of 23 tournaments including four on the trot since 2019. The Blitzboks can make it the fifth in a row which could be just the medicine they need to restore their status as one of the top teams on the circuit.
“Last season wasn’t really a great season for us, and having that opportunity again to start a new season and have another opportunity to perform is a blessing,” Soyizwapi told IOL.
“We’ve sat down as a group and worked on our culture, which is the foundation and cornerstone of the group. Our failures and hardships are really a strength for us, rather than a weakness because it is something to learn from. We use that as good experiences going into the new season.”
The team can also tap into the success of South Africa’s 15-man team who made history at October as the first team to win four Rugby World Cup titles winning the Webb Ellis Cup back-to-back in France. The team included three former Rugby Sevens stars – Cheslin Kolbe, Kwagga Smith and Kurt-Lee Arendse. Kolbe, who is world 400m record holder Wayde van Niekerk’s cousin, and Smith were members of the Blitzbok team that won bronze in Rio 2016.