Dazel hopes for improved showing in Atlanta
Springbok Women’s Sevens coach Renfred Dazel on Wednesday hoped to see an improvement in his team’s performance in the Atlanta Sevens World Series despite facing the prospect of trying to upset log-leaders New Zealand, hosts the USA and Russia in the pool stages.
The tournament, which will be hosted at the Fifth-Third Bank Stadium at the Kennesaw State University, will be played on Saturday and Sunday.
The Springbok Women’s Sevens suffered a defeat in the Bowl Final in Dubai and finished in 12thposition in Brazil, and with only three tournaments remaining after the Atlanta leg, Dazel was hopeful that the hard work at training would pay off on the field.
“We didn’t do well in the first two tournaments and this was mainly due to costly mistakes at crucial times,” said Dazel. “But we are determined to bounce back strongly from that because we know we are capable of much better performances. That said New Zealand, Russia and the USA have proven that they can produce high scores if they have space on attack, so solid defence will be one of the keys for us to compete with them on Saturday. We also have to be wise with our possession and we have to make the most of our opportunities to score points. This, however, will require being ready for the challenge mentally and physically. Luckily we have a good balance of youth and experience in the squad, so the senior players will be able to guide the new players.”
Dazel was confident that the team would recovered fully from the fatigue of the long journey to Atlanta by the time they take to the field and said: “We developed a player management plan before we departed for the US to ensure that the players could be on their feet as soon as possible. We arrived late on Wednesday and we will have a few field sessions in the next two days to get the circulation going. But we did most of the ground work in Stellenbosch, so it will simply be a case of fine-tuning our game this week.”
Springbok Women’s Sevens squad for the Atlanta World Series:
Sunelle Barnard
Siviwe Basweni
Phumeza Gadu
Rachelle Geldenhuys
Nosiphiwo Goda
Zenay Jordaan (captain)
Jacqueline Kriel
Sinazo Nobele
Fundiswa Plaatjie
Marithy Pienaar
Mathrin Simmers
Zaandre Theron
Springbok Women’s Sevens Atlanta fixtures on March 14 (reflecting SA time 7 hours ahead of Atlanta):
20h50 – USA vs SA
23h12 – New Zealand vs SA
02h18 – Russia vs SA
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