The Springbok Sevens team had certain objectives to achieve in their final training camp, currently being held in Johannesburg, before they leave for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, and with 30 days to go to departure, they are firmly on track with their planning.
That was the conclusion made by the Blitzboks assistant coach, Renfred Dazel, after the first of two weekends of matches the squad will play during their camp.
The team had another productive outing on Saturday, playing a number of matches against the SA All Stars Sevens Academy, with the Pretoria-based team providing much-needed match practice. Another set of matches will conclude the camp next weekend.
The Blitzboks are emulating their Tokyo match day programme and their performances will be analysed with much detail, especially for those players coming back from lay-offs.
All those players, including Dylan Sage, Mfundo Ndhlovu, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Stedman Gans had good outings on Friday after long lay-offs and their recovery for the second day of competition was a box to tick for the coaching staff.
"Yes, that and the importance of combinations,” said Dazel.
“We brought Ronald Brown and Lubabalo Dobela along as well, they are uncapped on the World Series but could add to the mix. So it was important to see them perform as well.
"They did well and that was good, as we needed to get a good look at them. Next week, in the next round of matches, we will probably go with what we believe will be the best combinations for Tokyo."
Certain match play situations also got trialled today, Dazel said: “We executed plays where we are a man down, as yellow cards could happen any moment and one needs to adapt.
“That also went well, so we are pretty pleased with the way the guys adapted to that. Quick decision-making in situations like that is crucial and today the guys showed they are on top of it."
Next weekend's match schedule will be determined early next week.