The Springbok Sevens team leave Cape Town for Dubai on Monday with a firm belief in their objectives for the new season and the knowledge that teamwork and work ethic will be non-negotiable.
Unfortunately for the Blitzboks, they have been dealt a late blow with the withdrawal of Ronald Brown, who picked up a hamstring strain last Friday, with Shaun Williams stepping into the role as sweeper.
Williams, who was part of the 2024 Olympic Games squad earlier this year, last played in Dubai in 2022, the same year he was part of the gold medal winning side at the Commonwealth Games in England.
Despite the injury setback, Impi Visser – one of the drivers towards excellence and a healthy and dynamic team culture and one of the two co-captains for the trip to the Emirates Dubai 7s along with Zain Davids – said they have clear goals for the season.
“We had a good chat amongst ourselves on how to reach those goals,” said Visser, who will be running out in his 40th HSBC SVNS tournament this weekend.
“Apart from winning on the field, we also want to be good people off it as well. It remains a massive honour to be part of this team, but that bring responsibilities, and we don’t want to disrespect those.”
The 29-year-old has been part of world series winning squads before, while he also suffered the ignominy of having to qualify for the Olympic Games via repechage earlier this year, and Visser said lessons were learnt and taken to heart.
“We lost a bit of what we stand for as a team last season and once the results reflected that, we realised we were on the wrong path,” he said. “I am happy to say, as the results in the repechage tournament and at the Paris Olympics showed, we found our way again. It is a happy squad travelling today.”
With Blitzbok head coach Philip Snyman tweaking the game plan slightly, Visser will find new energy in a greater focus on the breakdown and turn-over ball. One of the best defenders around, his work rate around winning ruck ball will be boosted by the variety in play.
“I still enjoy my roles, albeit it the less glamorous ones,” Visser said with a smile. “We have some serious attacking players, and they need to score the points, so the forwards don’t mind doing the hard yards for them. If we do our job well, they will reward us.”
Dubai is like a home away from home for the Blitzboks, who will be looking for a sixth straight tournament win in the UAE. Visser said they are not only counting on the good support they enjoy from the Dubai crowd to be successful again.
“We will not get ahead of ourselves – we have worked really hard and are traveling well prepared,” he said.
“We still need to focus though, we have a tough pool. Australia is always a hard one, especially first up, and we seem to bring the best out of Kenya.
“We will be facing France on better terms this time around, not the semi-finals of the Olympics in front of a packed stadium in Paris, but we will need no motivation for that one. First things first though and that will be Australia on Saturday morning.”
Pool A fixtures, Saturday 30 November (SA times):
08h50: SA v Australia
12h58: SA v Kenya
18h44: SA v France
Updated Springbok Sevens squad for Dubai (with HSBC SVNS stats)
#1 Christie Grobbelaar – 21 tournaments, 160 points (32 tries)
#2 Ryan Oosthuizen – 50 tournaments, 225 points (45 tries)
#3 Impi Visser (co-captain) – 39 tournaments, 205 points (41 tries)
#4 Zain Davids (co-captain) – 47 tournaments, 210 points (42 tries)
#5 Ricardo Duarttee – 12 tournaments, 216 points (15 tries, 69 conversions, 1 penalty goal)
#9 Shaun Williams – 17 tournaments, 157 points (25 tries, 16 conversions)
#10 Dewald Human – 26 tournaments, 289 points (25 tries, 82 conversions)
#11 Siviwe Soyizwapi – 53 tournaments, 780 points (152 tries)
#12 Shilton van Wyk – 20 tournaments, 185 points (37 tries)
#14 Quewin Nortje – 6 tournaments, 90 points (18 tries)
#15 Donovan Don – 3 tournaments, 15 points (3 tries)
#19 David Brits – 3 tournaments, 20 points (4 tries)
#24 Tristan Leyds – 5 tournaments, 69 points (9 tries, 12 conversions)