Eish! What a display of Sevens Rugby! Iliesa Tanivula’s Fijian side beat their South-Sea rivals Samoa by 19-14 in an action-packed, closely-fought Cup Final of the NZI Sevens in Wellington, New Zealand.
The nail-biting game went all the way down to the wire, with Samoa unfortunately not able to score a final try in the final seconds of the game. A converted try was all that stood between Samoa and ultimate glory at the Westpac Stadium.
Fiji last won a New Zealand Sevens title back in 2006.
The IRB Sevens World Series this week moves on to Las Vegas for the USA Sevens.
While most Kiwis were celebrating Waitangi Day, New Zealand’s National Day didn’t start on a happy note for the BlitzBokke. The South Africans went down to Fiji’s big men (5 – 21) in their fifth consecutive loss to the islanders. BlitzBokke.com was embarrassingly caught napping (literally) at the time of the game, but you can read Brenden Nel’s account of the game on Supersport here.
The win sees the Fijians advance to the Cup Semi-finals against last year’s NZI Sevens Champions England.
South Africa beat Canada 29 – 5 in a much better performance by the men in Green & Gold.
Mpho Mbiyozo was first on the scoreboard with a beautifully worked set-piece try. Frankie Horne showed that he’s not just strong but fast as well with a brilliant solo-effort, running a breath-sapping 50m to score his first try of the match.
Rayno Benjamin added one more soon after half-time. South Africa showed some solid defensive power in the face of an onslaught by Canada.
Birthday-boy Kyle Brown scored another inside the last minute, while Frankie Horne got his deserved second try after the hooter.
Final score: SA 29 – 5 Canada
South Africa plays Australia in the Final of the Bowl competition of the NZI Sevens in Wellington.
South Africa made a solid start on Day 1 of the NZI Sevens in Wellington.
First they saw off the small island nation Nuie by 38-10, with new BlitzBok Steven Huntgetting a brace of tries. Kyle Brown, Cecil Africa and speedster Rayno Benjamin also added their names to the tally of scorers.
The BlitzBokke’s 38-5 crushing defeat of Sevens World Champions Wales came courtesy of a hat-trick by new “sweeper” Cecil Africa. Marius ‘Shoes’ Schoeman and Rayno Benjamin soon joined him on the score-sheet while debutant Hoffman Maritz also scored with his first touch.
South Africa plays current log-leaders New Zealand in the final game of Day 1 of the NZI Sevens. A win for our Boys will see them getting a favourable draw in tomorrow’s play-offs.
His side’s disappointing start to the 2009/2010 IRB Sevens World Sevens season and yet another loss of key players to injury and provincial/Super Rugby commitments. These are once again the variables that has forced Paul Treu to re-think his strategy when the Series re-starts in Wellington this weekend.
Decimated side
The South African Sevens team is in New Zealand without the injured trio of captain, Paul Delport, Neil Powell and Renfred Dazel. During the off-season the team who won the IRB Sevens World Series, also lost a number of key players to provincial unions and Super Rugby franchises.
And to top it all, on Friday the team will have to fight it out against home team and tournament favourites, New Zealand, and Sevens World Cup holders Wales for one of the two top pool positions and passage to the knock-out stages. Niue makes up the fourth team in Pool A.
Cowboys don’t cry
While Springbok flyhalf legend Naas Botha famously coined this phrase, the BlitzBokke coach simply said: “It is no use to cry over those losses. Yes, losing those players plus the injuries all had an impact, probably bigger than we expected, but those are the typical challenges you must confront in any sport. We had plenty of time to reflect and to look at what went wrong, but we have to be positive and readjust our focus. One of the positives is that we now have the opportunity to blood four new players who come with a different sort of energy, enthusiasm and ambition.”
The four new youngsters, Philip van der Walt, Hoffman Maritz, Steven Hunt and Branco du Preez, are all Under-21 players, and they impressed Treu while playing for the SA Vipers in warm-up tournaments.
Reading our game-plan
Treu also admits that his team must come to terms with the fact that opposing teams had succeeded in nullifying their strong points.
“Teams definitely have adopted a certain way to play us, especially at the breakdown slowing us down and stopping our forward momentum, so we are going to need to come up with a way to counter that too. We need to be more clever and adapt our playing style to make up for some of the quality we are missing compared with last season,” explains the SA Sevens coach.
NZ & Vegas may make or break our season
Treu describes the Wellington and Las Vegas tournaments as the two most difficult challenges on the very competitive Series: “The time-difference and travel make these two events tougher for us. We are in a strong pool and it will not be easy going. Niue is an unknown factor, but Wales and New Zealand are two big games and we will have to be at our best from the start.”
“And even if we qualify for the next stage then we will have to beat the likes of Fiji and Samoa, two big crowd favourites here, and England of course, who are the defending their title.”
New Zealand leads the Series with 48 points after impressive victories in Dubai and George while South Africa is in eighth place on 16 points.
The Springbok Sevens squad is (SARU contracted unless indicated):
Mpho Mbiyozo, Chase Minnaar, Frankie Horne, Cecil Afrika, Kyle Brown, Ryno Benjamin, Mzwandile Stick (captain), Marius Schoeman, Steven Hunt (Vodacom Western Province U21), Hoffman Maritz, Philip van der Walt (both Vodacom Free State U21), Branco du Preez (Vodacom Blue Bulls U21).
Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu shares his views on the eve of his side’s departure for the 3rd and 4th legs of the IRB Sevens World Series in New Zealand and the USA. He also talks about the loss of ‘sweeper’ Renfred Dazel and the inclusion of 4 un-capped players for this tour.
If you visit the coach’s website regularly, you will have noticed that Paul usually speaks to Guy McDonald, who also doubles as a DJ from GoodHope FM. This time around he shares his thoughts with Hilton Mundy who is the bloke responsible for the development of the coach’s fantastic website at PaulTreuSevens.com
If there’s one thing that you can add to BlitzBokke coach Paul Treu’sarsenal of skills coaches, it’s that he has NO scruples in choosing the best of the best in preparing his charges for their quest to re-gain their IRB Sevens World Series crown, be they career & personal development, psychological development or, in this case… skills development.
SA Rugby today revealed that our coach has pulled in an Aussie (Yes… you read that right) an Australian, to assist the BlitzBokke with their preparation in Wellington, New Zealand. The IRB Sevens World Series resumes in the New Zealand North Island city of Wellington with the NZI Sevens (5-6 February, 2010).
Former Reds skills coach and Australian touch rugby expert Jason Stanton has joined the Springbok Sevens team in Wellington to assist the South Africans in their preparations for the Wellington Sevens tournament which starts on Friday in the New Zealand capital.
Stanton helped Australia to three consecutive Touch Rugby world titles, is a former skills coach of the Australian Super Rugby franchise the Queensland Reds, and last year he guided the Australian Women’s team to victory in the inaugural IRB Sevens World Cup in Dubai.
“Jason has an amazing track record as a skills coach and he is obviously highly respected in both Rugby and Touch Rugby circles. He has a refreshingly different approach to skills coaching and I am delighted that has joined us for the week in Wellington,” said Treu.
Treu guided the Springbok Sevens to IRB Series honours last season, but he and his team has found the going extremely tough during the opening part of the new campaign.
Injuries to key players and the loss of several regulars to provincial and Super Rugby has dealt the team a heavy blow, and South Africa is currently in eighth place on the log with 16 points. New Zealand leads the title chase with the maximum 48 points after tournament victories in Dubai and George in December.
Treu has arranged a warm-up match against Tonga on Wednesday and he is very keen to give all four newcomers a run against the physical Pacific Islanders.
“We play Niue in our first match on Friday and Tonga would therefore be the ideal team to prepare against as they play a very similar style of rugby. Chase Minnaar and Marius Schoeman might not play because both of them have a bit of an upset stomach problem, but they should be okay for the captain’s run on Thursday,” explained Treu.
South Africa’s second match on Friday is against the Sevens World Cup winners Wales and they end the first day with a tough assignment against hosts and tournament favourites New Zealand.
Well, call it an early morning or a late night, Sevens fans in South Africa who wish to catch all of Day 1′s 24 games as well as the knockout rounds (Day 2) from Wellington in New Zealand are in for it. Due to the vast time-difference between Wellington and South Africa, game 1 of Day 1 as well as the first game of Day 2 of the NZI New Zealand Sevens start at 01:45 (SA time).
However, fans who just want to catch South Africa take on Nui (game 8) in the first game of the tournament will have a few more hours of sleep because that game starts around 04:30 (SA). The game against Wales (game 16) starts around 07:30 (SA) while the Springboks take on hosts New Zealand (game 24) around11:00 (SA). The schedule is repeated on Saturday morning.
Day 1: 5 February 2010
Day 2: 6 February 2010
The Supersport 1 schedule for Day 1 of the NZI Sevens for South African viewers:
01:45-03:25 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Games 1 – 4
03:25-04:55 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Games 5 – 8 (SA vs. Nui Game
04:55-06:25 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Games 9 – 12
06:25-07:50 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Games 13 – 16 (SA vs. Wales Game 16)
07:50-09:45 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Games 17 – 20
09:45-11:30 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Games 21 – 24 (SA vs. NZ Game 24)
The Supersport 1 schedule for Day 2 of the NZI Sevens for South African viewers:
01:45-03:30 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Bowl QF
03:30-05:10 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Cup QF
05:10-05:50 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Shield SF
05:50-06:35 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Bowl SF
06:35-07:35 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Plate SF
07:35-08:30 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Cup SF
08:30-09:00 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Shield Final
09:00-09:30 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Bowl Final
09:30-10:00 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Plate Final
10:00-11:00 IRB 7s World Series: New Zealand Sevens – Cup Final
To access this schedule, simply click on BROADCAST TIMES at the top of the page.
Last year this time, as the video announcer said, it was all about ONE TEAM… South Africa.
How things have changed, ne?! The BlitzBokke have lost half of their regular stalwarts and coach Paul has included 4 newcomers to his side to contest the Wellington and Las Vegas tournaments. To top it all, the Bokke are second-last on the IRB Sevens World Series log after the first 2 tournaments of the 2009/2010 season.
Have a look at how last year’s NZI Sevens transpired:
