The Springbok Sevens team will start their third consecutive charge at Olympic gold with a clear endorsement from their coach, Philip Snyman.
The Blitzboks face Ireland and New Zealand on the opening day of the competition at Stade de France on Wednesday and Snyman – a bronze medalist from the 2016 Games in Rio – said they have done everything possible to be at their competitive best this week.
“We are ready,” said Snyman. “We had a good week of preparation since we arrived here, which included a good training session against Uruguay two days ago. That helped us a lot, as a match is always better than just training as a squad.
“We saw different pictures on attack and defence and had to adapt accordingly. It was a well worth exercise and sharpened us up nicely for the matches against Ireland and New Zealand.”
Winning medals at the biggest sporting event in the world has a different prestige, but Snyman said that did not change their mindset and they they are not approaching the tournament differently because it is the Olympics.
“For us, it will just be another opportunity to represent our country and to deliver our best effort for the jersey,” he said. “Yes, the reward might be different, but the game remains the same and that is where our focus will be tomorrow.”
They also know what to expect from Ireland and New Zealand, according to the Blitzbok coach: “Both of them are the same in style and approach. They are bigger than us and more physical and will attack our breakdown in order to slow us down. We have real magic and speed on the outside and teams will try and prevent us to use that.”
Snyman said their defensive effort will be crucial if they want to start on a positive note.
“Ireland is our main focus for now, we want to start well and lay a foundation for the rest of the tournament,” said Snyman.
“We need to make our tackles and put pressure on their attackers. They are a dangerous side when they have momentum, so we need to stop them for getting going.”
Snyman is confident about the attacking ability of his side and feels that they could be more rugby fit than the other teams, since they played in a competitive tournament recently.
“We are the only team to play in the repechage in Monaco and had no break at the end of the world series in Madrid (at the beginning of June), so we are rugby fit and will be ready to go. That could just give us an edge on the other sides, who have not played tournament sevens as recently as we did,” added Snyman.
Blitzboks’ pool schedule (SA times, all matches on SuperSport):
Wednesday 24 July:
17h30: Ireland
21h30: New Zealand
Thursday 25 July
16h00: Japan
Blitzbok squad for the 2024 Olympic Games:
1) Christie Grobbelaar
2) Ryan Oosthuizen
3) Impi Visser *
4) Zain Davids *
5) Quewin Nortje
6) Tiaan Pretorius
7) Shaun Williams
8) Selvyn Davids * (captain)
9) Tristan Leyds
10) Rosko Specman **
11) Siviwe Soyizwapi *
12) Shilton van Wyk
13) Ronald Brown * (travelling reserve)
14) Katlego Letebele (travelling reserve)
