South Africa sevens looking for home glory after Dubai win
Friday 9 December 2016 13:05, UK
South Africa's sevens team, the Blitzboks, have won the season-opening Dubai leg of the Sevens World Series after a disastrous year for the Springbok XV.
Allister Coetzee saw the 'Boks lose eight Tests in 2016, the most they had ever suffered in a calendar year, with the season yielding just four wins from 12 full internationals.
The season also featured a record home defeat by New Zealand and an embarrassing first-ever loss to Italy.
But the sevens team brought a breath of fresh air back to South Africa, last week beating Olympic champions Fiji 26-14 to claim the Dubai crown.
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Now eyes will turn to Cape Town, where the Blitzboks will be defending champions and the two-day event starting Saturday is, encouragingly for South African rugby administrators, a sell-out.
Blitzbok coach Neil Powell was quick, however, to warn against complacency.
"We can't come into this tournament and think we can just start where we left in Dubai," said Powell, who was a player when South Africa last won the sevens series, in 2008-9.
"We need to start all over again. That will be the theme this week in our preparation, getting mentally prepared for Cape Town again. We have a really tough pool with USA, Australia and Russia so I think we are going to need a big mental shift."
Fiji head up Pool B with France, Kenya and Japan.
"We quietly feel disappointed deep inside as we didn't complete the job last week in Dubai in that final against South Africa so we are hungry just to go out there," said Fiji's Naca Cawanibuka.
"We will look at ourselves first and how we want to prepare and make sure that we put our best foot forward and be the best version of ourselves as we try and attack this last tournament and finish 2016 on a high note."
After an impressive performance in Dubai where England won bronze, Simon Amor's men are in a tough Pool C which also features New Zealand, Argentina and Canada.
Pool D contains Wales, Scotland, Samoa and invitational team Uganda.
Watch the Dubai Sevens plus five Champions Cup games live on Sky Sports
