Everything to play for in London
The Springbok Sevens team, who topped the overall standings for the better part of the 2014/15 season, lost their lead at the top of the HSBC Sevens World Series when they lost to Fiji in Sunday’s Cup Quarterfinal at the Scotland Sevens.
South Africa lost their four point lead at the top of the standings after a 15 – 0 defeat to Fiji, who then advanced through to the final where they beat New Zealand in the Cup Final to claim a five point overall lead at the top of the 2014/15 standings.
Losing to Fiji has made things quite interesting amongst the top three as Fiji are leading on 147, followed by South Africa on 142 and New Zealand in third on 139. The host nation England will go into the final round of the season in forth place on 117 points.
The Blitzbokke will be without playmaker Cecil Afrika, who got injured on the first day at the Scotland Sevens, but will be replaced by the more than capable Justin Geduld.
Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell confirmed that Geduld passed a stringent fitness test in South Africa before departure.
“Scans revealed that Cecil will not be ready for this weekend, but we are very lucky to have Justin available again,” said Powell.
“Cecil is a world-class player and we all know that, but so is Justin. He is also a playmaker just like Cecil and we could not have asked for a better replacement. Justin has proved himself in the past and did not make the Dream Team at the end of last year’s series for nothing.”
Heading into the final round of the 2014/15 season, the Blitzbokke need to win the London Sevens and hope the island side finish outside the top three if they want to claim the overall title.
“We are disappointed as we did not play our best rugby in Scotland. But we must get back up and play with the right mindset in every game. Sevens are a funny sport and lots of things can still happen. We need to make sure every effort is our best one this weekend, so that we cannot blame ourselves for a lack of effort at the end of it,” said the Springbok Sevens coach.
The second placed South Africa will play in Pool D at the London Sevens alongside the USA, France and Portugal.
Fiji will play in Pool A with Canada, Argentina and Samoa. The third placed New Zealand is in Pool B with Australia, Wales and Japan, while the forth placed England will compete in Group C against Scotland, Kenya and Brazil.
Written by Pierre Mc Leod
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