Rugby World Cup Springboks Bryan Habana, Damian de Allende and Lwazi Mvovo are among a host of 15-a-side stars who will be in contention for places in South Africa’s Olympic Sevens squad, the South African Rugby Union announced on Wednesday.
They will be joined by Springbok team mates Juan de Jongh, Warren Whiteley, Cornal Hendricks and Oupa Mohoje at a 3-week training camp from Sunday in Stellenbosch as part of the South African Rugby Union’s (SARU) new Sevens strategy in Olympic year, announced Jurie Roux, CEO of SARU.
Habana has returned to his French club side Toulon and will join the training camp towards the end of the month. SARU also confirmed that Springboks Francois Hougaard and Ryan Kankowski had already signed contracts to play for the Springbok Sevens team this season.
In addition, provincial 15-a-side stars Cheslin Kolbe, Rayno Benjamin, Warrick Gelant and Jaco Kriel have also been invited to join the camp alongside SARU’s powerful, existing Sevens squad.
“The announcement of this group is a significant achievement for us and it is the culmination of a lot of hard work behind the scenes by Neil Powell (Springbok Sevens coach) and Rassie Erasmus (SARU GM: Rugby Department),” said Roux.
“I’d like to thank our various provincial unions for their willingness to assist the Springbok Sevens coach and management team in planning this new approach. “Both parties worked very hard to make this arrangement possible. The forthcoming season is the most important in the history of Sevens rugby. The new, expanded World Series and the Olympic Games are 2 huge challenges and we at SARU want to make sure we give our Springbok Sevens team the best possible chance of success.”
Roux said that following the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup, the focus for the coming season would shift to Sevens, starting with the 3-week training camp which gets underway in Stellenbosch on Sunday.
“The signing of players such as Francois Hougaard and Ryan Kankowski is a real coup for us,” said Roux. “It means they will focus solely on the seven-a-side game in the coming season, bringing with them unique skill sets that our Sevens department has identified as being ideal for the code.
“A number of other, highly talented 15-a-side players have also been identified as having great potential in Sevens rugby and, working in conjunction with their provinces, we plan to expose them to tournament play during the course of the HSBC World Series.”
Roux said that the squad was planned in line with SARU’s Strategic Transformation Plan (STP) and was comfortably ahead of the Sevens target for 2016.
Hougaard, the Vodacom Blue Bulls utility back, has played 35 Test for the Springboks and his contract will run from 1 November until after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Former Cell C Sharks No 8 Kankowski, meanwhile, is set to join the Blitzbokke at the beginning of February and will remain with the team until August 2016, when the Olympic Games will be staged in Brazil.
Kankowski has already made 4 HSBC World Sevens Series appearances and he has earned 20 Test caps for the Springboks.
Powell was delighted with the new additions and said he and his management team were looking forward to the exciting prospects of working with the reinforced training squad. “We have a lot of talent in our existing group and there are some very talented players coming through our SARU Sevens Academy,” explained Powell.
“The addition of the group of Springbok and provincial players will raise our game significantly and present us with an opportunity to build an even stronger Springbok Sevens team. It is also fantastic for the brand of Sevens in South Africa that players of the calibre of Hougaard and Kankowski have signed to play for us for a season,” Powell said.
Since taking over the coaching reins in 2014, Powell, has steered the Blitzbokke to 2nd place on the World Series log, the gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and automatic qualification for the Olympic Games.
South African Sevens training squad for 2015 / 2016 season (SARU Sevens contracted unless stipulated):
Cecil Afrika – 38 HSBC WSS tournaments
Tim Agaba – Uncapped (EP Kings)
Rayno Benjamin – 29 HSBC WSS tournaments (Toyota Free State Cheetahs)
Kyle Brown – 48 HSBC WSS tournaments
Branco du Preez – 41 HSBC WSS tournaments
Carel du Preez – 3 HSBC WSS tournaments
Damian de Allende – 0 HSBC WSS tournaments, 13 Tests (DHL Western Province)
Stephan Dippenaar – 25 HSBC WSS tournaments
Chris Dry – 44 HSBC WSS tournaments
Juan de Jongh – 1 HSBC WSS tournaments, 14 Tests (DHL Western Province)
Justin Geduld – 18 HSBC WSS tournaments
Warrick Gelant – 4 HSBC WSS tournaments (Vodacom Blue Bulls)
Lungelo Gosa – Uncapped, SARU Sevens Academy
Bryan Habana – 2 HSBC WSS tournaments, 117 Tests (Toulon, France)
Cornal Hendricks – 17 HSBC WSS tournaments, 12 Tests (Toyota Free State Cheetahs)
Francois Hougaard – 0 HSBC WSS tournaments, 35 Tests (newly contracted to Springbok Sevens)
Frankie Horne – 68 HSBC WSS tournaments
Dewald Human – Uncapped, SARU Sevens Academy
Ryan Kankowski – 4 HSBC WSS tournaments, 20 Tests (newly contracted to Springbok Sevens from Feb 2016)
Werner Kok – 18 HSBC WSS tournaments
Cheslin Kolbe – 8 HSBC WSS tournaments (DHL Western Province)
Jaco Kriel – Uncapped (Xerox Golden Lions)
Oupa Mohoje – 0 HSBC WSS tournaments, 8 Tests (Toyota Free State Cheetahs)
Lwazi Mvovo – 0 HSBC WSS tournaments, 15 Tests (Cell C Sharks)
Sibahle Maxwane – Uncapped, SARU Sevens Academy
Ruhan Nel – 6 HSBC WSS tournaments
Sandile Ngcobo – Uncapped, SARU Sevens Academy
Sphamandla Ngcobo – Uncapped, SARU Sevens Academy
Dylan Sage – Uncapped, SARU Sevens Academy
Seabelo Senatla – 19 HSBC WSS tournaments
Philip Snyman – 30 HSBC WSS tournaments
Kwagga Smith – 15 HSBC WSS tournaments
Rosko Specman – 6 HSBC WSS tournaments
Warren Whiteley – 6 HSBC WSS tournaments, 3 Tests (Xerox Golden Lions)
Wow… I really think players like Jaco Kriel, Francois Hougaard, Tim Agaba, Damian de Allende, Juan de Jongh & Warrick Gelant can add great value to the Blitzbokke Sevens campaign!!
I think a trick was missed not to add Faf de Klerk to the Sevens roster…
Think Francois Hougaard could make a very good 7s player. Seeing that he is listed as contracted to 7s now does this mean he will not be available for Super rugby for the Bulls?
That is one BIG squad, there are going to be many very disappointed players who miss out on Olympic selection especially the specialist 7s players who have been doing it year in and year out and will miss out to players parachuted in for the short term from the 15 man game. As long as all the players are measured by the same yardstick and the big stars from the 15 man game are not given preferential treatment, e.g. given more game time than the others to help them adjust to 7s game.
What is the minimum tournaments the players have to play? I assume there will be some heavy rotation throughout the season before the Olympics to make many of these players available…
The sevens at the olympics is going to be incredible. I hope the brazilians can appreciate it…
Will be interesting to see the nz and aus squads.
If another four years of Heyneke couldn’t accomplish it , this will surely make Nortie and Nama crap themselves
http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Springboks/Matfield-at-RWC-2019-at-42-20151104
Matfield at RWC 2019 – at 42?
Victor Matfield’s Springbok career might not be over, despite the assumption that the victory over Argentina in the Bronze Final at the Rugby World Cup represented the veteran lock forward’s final appearance for his country.
Speaking in a short video clip to be shown on The Dan Nicholl Show on SuperSport on Wednesday night, Matfield suggested that he was disappointed people had said he had played his last game for the Boks.
“I still have big dreams. 2019, I might be there,” Matfield says.
Matfield, now 38, would be 42 when the 2019 World Cup takes place in Japan, but former team-mate and World Cup winner Ashwin Willemse, a guest on the first episode of season two of The Dan Nicholl Show, suggested it wasn’t impossible that Matfield could make it, and paid tribute to the veterans in the side, saying “all of the elderly folk delivered” at the tournament.
6 @ Victoriabok:
Won’t bother me VB. I don’t care too much about HM or his team. he can keep selecting all the 2007 players who can still walk for all I care.
What will be interesting though is to see how many of the Bok supporters who still harbor idealistic dreams of their team winning something will be smiling the next few years.
Then again, if 4 years didn’t prove to them that the man is out of his depth, then 8 years won’t either.
GBS, can this thread please…before John Smit reads it.
nortie wrote:
VM should watch the game again, especially where he lost a crucial lineout ball near the end of the game
All he brings to the game is lineout play and if he can’t do it he’s of no use to the team
I think it’s been his plan all along, that’s why he’s going to play in England now
9 @ Victoriabok:
Nah, Victor won’t make it till 2019!
grootblousmile wrote:
Yes I know but he should know it by now
Has any of the older players announced their retirement from International rugby yet?
BrumbiesBoy wrote:
Don’t worry, he’s to busy running “Barney’s Retirement Home for Old Sarries and other cronies”
Ek wou nou iets pittig gesê het, maar ek hou eerder my bek!
grootblousmile wrote:
Toemaar ons kan maar stilbly, die Bulle bedryf “Barend se uitspanhoekie vir Oud Affies, Tukkies en Broederbonders”
14 @ Victoriabok:
Janee, Onrusbarend is ‘n ander kalant…. maar dit was nie oor John Smit wat ek iets wou gesê het nie…
grootblousmile wrote:
Victor of Gary Gold?
Ek’s net bly VM kom nie die Bulls afrig nie
16 @ Victoriabok:
Nee, ookie!
17 @ Victoriabok:
Ek is netso bly Victor is nou weg by die Bulls.
Kyk, hy was ‘n goeie Bok en goeie Bul gewees… maar sy mag, oordrewe invloedsfeer en houding teen die einde was nie wat dit moes wees nie. Mens kan selfs argumenteer hy was ‘n verdelende invloed by die Bulls teen die einde van sy tyd daar.
Anyway, hy is steeds ‘n Boklegende, so ek gaan hom nie verder slegsê nie.
jeez GB. Kan jy nee die blou kop (hier onner) veranner nie. Sy maak my mal want sy’s blou, bladdie lekker innie gesig en seker definitief unavailable. Boonop, sy’s daar vir meer as n jaar by my rekening. Tyd vir n verandering miskien. Se maar net.
@ grootblousmile: John has his hands full by die Saarks GB. Both hands I suspect. My goodness but the Sharks have climbed down from their pedestal in recent times have they not? Not ideal for SA rugby I’d have to say so nasty smirking is out of the question in the interests of the national cause.
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