Stedman Gans will captain the Springbok Sevens squad to Hamilton and Sydney for the third and fourth tournaments of the World Rugby Sevens Series, taking over the captaincy armband from the injured Siviwe Soyizwapi.
The Australasian leg of the World Series will be played in Hamilton next weekend (January 25-26) and in Sydney a week later (February 1-2).
The Blitzboks are departing for New Zealand on Saturday.
Coach Neil Powell made seven changes to the squad that won the Dubai Sevens and were losing finalists at the Cape Town Sevens late last year, including handing the captaincy to Gans for the first time.
Dylan Sage, Rosko Specman (both Bulls), Ruhan Nel and Seabelo Senatla (both Stormers) have returned to their Super Rugby teams, Soyizwapi and Kurt-Lee Arendse were ruled out due to ankle and knee strains respectively and Ryan Oosthuizen is rotated with Werner Kok, who is returning to the squad after his short stint in France at the end of last year.
Angelo Davids, Branco du Preez, Impi Visser, Cecil Afrika, Muller du Plessis and Gans are the new players in the team, while Sako Makata has also recovered from injury and will travel along as the official reserve.
Powell says of his squad: “We knew we would be losing the four players to their Super Rugby teams after the opening two tournaments and the whole squad are aware of our plans for the remainder of the season.
“Everyone knows when and where they will be given an opportunity and I am confident that this group will do well on this trip.”
Blitzboks:
1 Chris Dry, 2 Angelo Davids, 3 Impi Visser, 4 Zain Davids, 5 Werner Kok, 6 JC Pretorius, 7 Branco du Preez, 8 Selvyn Davids, 9 Justin Geduld, 10 Cecil Afrika, 11 Muller du Plessis, 12 Stedman Gans (captain), 13 Sako Makata.