It is not quite an open invitation, but it will be a case of the more the merrier for Springbok Women's Sevens forward Kemisetso Baloyi on Saturday at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town.
Baloyi will not only celebrate her 27th birthday on the final day of the second World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 tournament, but she is also hoping to crown the afternoon with some silverware with her team.
“What a wonderful way to celebrate one's birthday,” the former University of Pretoria student said with a smile on Wednesday.
“I will be playing for my country alongside these wonderful teammates and if all goes according to plan, I can celebrate us winning the tournament as well. And if that is in front of a good crowd to spur us on, so much the better.”
According to Baloyi, winning will be the big challenge and drive in the lead-up to the weekend's action, with the team's focus and preparations into week two stepping up a notch.
“Our goal remains to finish top,” she said. “We are much better prepared as we could look at our mistakes from last week and what needed to be sorted out or improved.
“The reviews were honest and open, and everyone is determined to deliver performances that can win us the tournament and put us in a good position leading up to the final tournament in Krakow in a couple of weeks.”
The opponents for Friday's pool matches, Samoa and Poland, will provide a physical challenge, but they will be ready: “What happened last weekend is water under the bridge. We know what we did wrong where and this week is all about rectifying those mistakes.
“We will go into that first game well prepared. We are expecting them to be physical, but the focus for us will be our game plan and execution thereof,” said Baloyi.