You can smile as much as you want Kyle Brown!

The IRB posted the following response from Springbok Sevens skipper Kyle Brown. Brown spoke to irb.com after his side captured their first Cup in two seasons.

On Sunday the BlitzBokke well and truly dispatched of the team who was fast becoming their bogey-side, Fiji.

This is what Brown had to say:

“Unbelievable, I can’t stop smiling,” he said. “It’s been a lot of hard work. We’ve worked hard on the basics and we’ve pulled through. It sticks us back in the hunt but we’ll concentrate on the next tournament.

“The boys played like a family, stuck together when times were tough and in defence the attitude has really changed, we all worked for each other,” added an emotional Brown.

The Springbok Seven do not move up in the HSBC Sevens World Series standings, still ranked fifth, but they do close the gap on joint World Series leaders England and New Zealand, as well as Samoa and Fiji in third and fourth.

We say: “You can smile as much as you want, Skipper!”

(Audio by irb.com)

Kyle Brown on winning Vegas Cup by BlitzBokke

The skipper was echoed by his coach who said:

“It’s awesome to know that you put in so much work in practice and then for the guys to have the ultimate belief that when they go out on the field and stick to the things we’ve done that they can actually win tournaments,” said victorious coach, Paul Treu.

“For the young players it’s always difficult. They’re never going to believe until they’ve seen it and that’s what this is going to give them – that belief and calmness that when they go out there and stick to their structures that anything is possible.”

Treu’s sights are set far higher and fixed on the future.

“Winning here is awesome and ultimately that is one of our goals but the long term goal for us is key building towards the 2016 Olympics. We want to be ready in 2014 when it comes to playing in Olympic qualifying tournaments and we want to keep exposing the youngsters to international standards,” he said.

“Especially for a young player like Paul Jordaan, imagine it, winning a tournament on his first tour. Those are the kind of memories that we would like to build and hopefully for all the youngsters back home he’s going to be an inspiration to them to keep working harder.”

“There are a few back at home and so we might put them in the mix for Hong Kong as well.”

Treu was also glowing in his praise for Cecil Afrika, who returned from a broken jaw in double quick time to inspire the Bok effort and is the leading point (181) and try scorer (22) so far this HSBC Sevens World Series.

“We saw his value in Dubai and also in George and we missed him last weekend. Last week (in Wellington) it was difficult because nobody gave us that momentum going forward and that’s what he gave us here, especially in the first half against Fiji today.

“He’s so difficult to defend against because he has an eye for the gap and once he sees it he backs himself. He’s been instrumental in our attack, so has Branco du Preez and Bernardo Botha, and this was a massive team effort.”