Stormers players Seabelo Senatla and Ruhan Nel have both been included in the Blitzboks squad for next weekend’s Dubai Sevens tournament.
With the Tokyo Olympic Games around the corner, much of the upcoming Sevens Series will be centred around preparation for a gold-medal push.
While Nel still has hopes of making it to the Olympic Games, ex-World Sevens Player of the Year Senatla wants to focus on XVs rugby.
POWER PLAY: SA’s Ruhan Nel. Picture: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix.
His experience, though, will be invaluable for South Africa in the first two tournaments - with the next one being the Cape Town Sevens - before returning to the Stormers.
The squad for Dubai will be led by Siviwe Soyizwapi and also features Dylan Sage, who made his Super Rugby debut for the Bulls earlier this year.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/WorldRugby7s?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WorldRugby7shas been announced. Here is the squad for the @Dubai7s @CastleFreeSA @FNBSA @ASICS_ZA #BestOfUs pic.twitter.com/6KqLwZEW4H
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks)
Of his squad, coach Neil Powell says: “I think we are better prepared compared to the same time last year.
“We had a poor start in Dubai last year and it took us a while to recover from that.
“We can’t promise anything this time around, but I am pretty sure the effort will be there and if that is the case, we will be very competitive.”
Blitzboks and tournaments in brackets:
Chris Dry (68), Ryan Oosthuizen (17), Dylan Sage (24), Zain Davids (18), JC Pretorius (5), Siviwe Soyizwapi (captain, 28), Selvyn Davids (14), Rosko Specman (28), Justin Geduld (46), Kurt-Lee Arendse (4), Seabelo Senatla (39), Ruhan Nel (28) and Christi Grobbelaar (on debut).