Image: Roger Sedres/Gallo Images
The Springbok Sevens squad are well aware of the fact that South Africa have not won the Melrose Cup yet, but they believe the effort from the 2018 group at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco this weekend could change that.
Blitzbok captain Philip Snyman said his troops were motivated to deliver a performance that would be good enough to eventually lift the Melrose Cup for the first time, but were equally aware it would take four consecutive wins to get to that moment.
“The format of the tournament is a straight knock-out, so we will not win this if we lose any matches – that is the reality of this tournament,” Snyman said. He also played in the 2009 and 2013 events, in Dubai and Moscow respectively, when the Blitzboks were knocked out in the quarter- finals on both occasions.
“Our first match will be against Ireland or Chile and if we think we can just show up because we are the first seeds, we will be in for a massive surprise,” he said.
“We have seen, especially in recent tournaments, that literally any team can beat any other at this level. So there is no way we can dare to underestimate either the Irish or Chile. Both are capable of beating a regular on the series if that team is not 100% on song.”
Snyman is quietly confident that South Africa will be as competitive as they were earlier in the season, when they defended their 10-tournament HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series crown.
“We have been training well so far,” he said. “The first couple of sessions had the lungs burning and the legs pumping and it was tough following our long flight from South Africa, but we have some confidence from the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series win.
“We also played in the last two tournament finals in the series and won the last one, so we have some momentum.”
The opening match against Ireland or Chile must set the momentum for the remainder of the weekend, Snyman said.
“We need to start well and then build our performances from that. We will not be looking at the result of the final game, but rather at how we execute our own plan.”
There will also be loads of action at the women’s World Cup. The form book and ranking at the Rugby World Cup Women’s Sevens tournament suggest the Springbok Women’s Sevens team will find it tough to beat Russia when the two countries meet in an early game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Friday.
The Russians are rated among the top five teams in the world, while South Africa are just outside the top ten.
But Marithy Pienaar, a former SA Rugby Women’s Player of the Year and experienced Springbok Women’s Sevens player, believes they are ready to turn that around when they face the Russians this weekend.
“We are certainly not the favourites,” Pienaar said.
“But I think we are well prepared for this Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament. We have worked hard over the last couple of months and came to San Francisco with some very clear objectives in mind.”
One of those is to prove to themselves that they are indeed good enough to play against the top countries in the world; another is to beat teams ranked higher than themselves.