Werner Kok has all the confidence in the awesome depth of the Blitzboks squad.
South Africa go into the Canada leg as defending champions after a first-ever win in Vancouver last year when JC Pretorius, Sako Makata, Impi Visser and Muller du Plessis were all still on single digits in tournament appearances while Kurt-Lee Arendse made his debut.
On Monday, the team made a remarkable final comeback victory to beat out Fiji in the LA Sevens.
And Kok says it’s down to the same system and principles that made him into the 2015 World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year.
He says: “Our depth is amazing - we have so many young players in the system who are playing so well.”
“We had some very experienced guys in the squad, such as Branco du Preez, Chris Dry, Cecil Afrika and myself, but the younger players’ talents are amazing.
“They are really playing well and the results are there to prove it.”
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/wernerkok1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@wernerkok1to stand still for a minute. This is what he had to say about celebrating his 50th @WorldRugby7s tournament with a gold medal @LASevensRugby pic.twitter.com/xnE9mw5sVK
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks)
With the Olympic Games a few months away, the expectation is that a number of established stars, such as Seabelo Senatla, Rosko Specman, Dylan Sage and Ruhan Nel - all of whom were part of the Blitzbok squad that won the opening tournament of the current series in Dubai and were losing finalists a week later, will be in contention for Tokyo 2020 in July.
And Kok warns: “These younger guys are all keen to be part of the squad for the Olympic Games and they are really laying down a marker.
“That is good news, not only for the Olympics, but also the rest of the World Series.”