Johannesburg - The South African and World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, Seabelo Senatla, said it is hard to believe that it is time for the South African leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series yet again.
The HSBC Cape Town Sevens kicks off in the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday 10 December and will conclude on Sunday, 11 December in what again will be a weekend of tries, speed and fun in front of a sold-out stadium.
Senatla, who was named World Rugby's Sevens Player of the Year for 2016, has continued his rich vein of form in the opening tournament of the 2016/17 series, played in Dubai last weekend and was named the Emirates Airlines Dubai Sevens Player of the Tournament.
The winger finds it hard to believe that a year has passed since the Springbok Sevens team won the inaugural event in Cape Town. “Preseason seemed so very long and last weekend's tournament in Dubai was over in a flash. Here we are on the eve of the Cape Town Sevens again,” Senatla said.
“It is very exciting to be part of all of this though. We really worked hard pre-season and had success in Dubai, which was great reward for the group. Now we are playing in front of our own people here in Cape Town, so would love nothing more than putting in a good performance over the weekend.”
Senatla admitted that is was a busy week, but he feels the team focused on the right things at training.
“We worked hard in training, especially yesterday, when we had our main session for the week and the guys are ready. We are so excited to play,” Senatla said.
Another Blitzbok speedster, Rosko Specman, said the team has much to prove.
“We get this one chance to play in front of our families and we want to make them proud,” said Specman.
“That said, although everyone has an individual desire to do well, we also want to perform as a team. We realise we need each other and if there is trust amongst ourselves and in our structures, the results will look after itself.”
The tournament, now in its second year at the 55 000-seater stadium, will start at 10h15 on Saturday when Scotland and Samoa clash in what will be the first of many tightly contested matches. This will be followed by New Zealand and Argentina, before England will take on Canada.
Other matches in the lead-up to the home side's first match include France v Kenya, Fiji vs Japan, and Australia vs USA.
South Africa, top seeds in Pool A, will face Russia in their opening match of the tournament is at 12.49pm. They also face USA at 16h10 and Australia at 7.56pm.
The pools for the HSBC Cape Town Sevens are: Pool A: South Africa, Australia, USA, Russia Pool B: Fiji, France, Kenya, Japan Pool C: England, New Zealand, Argentina, Canada Pool C: Wales, Scotland, Samoa, Uganda.
African News Agency (ANA)