SA drawn against hosts in Canada Sevens Series
The Springbok Women’s Sevens will face hosts Canada, the USA and Russia in the Canada Sevens in Langford, Victoria in the fourth round of the Sevens World Series on April 18 and 19.
With Canada in second place on the log standings at the halfway stage of the Series, last weekend’s finalists USA in fifth place, and Russia in seventh place on the standings, coach Renfred Dazel’s team will again be tested to the limit.
The team arrived in SA from the Atlanta leg on Tuesday and will have a few days off with their families before beginning their preparations for the Canada tournament next Thursday.
“We are competing against the best teams in the world on the circuit, so every tournament will be equally challenging,” said Dazel. “USA showed last weekend what influence home ground advantage could have on a team’s morale and determination to succeed, and we will be expecting a similarly strong performance from Canada next month. They finished third in Dubai, Brazil and Atlanta, so they will certainly look to take those performances a step further at home.
“The USA and Russia, meanwhile, are also quality teams and they have had the upper hand against us in the past, so we will have to step up our performance significantly to be competitive against them.”
Dazel was open about his disappointment looking back at the team’s display in Atlanta and said there was hard work ahead for them to give a better account of themselves in the second half of the series.
“We let ourselves and our country down in Atlanta,” said Dazel. “We always expected a tough opening season as a core team on the circuit, but we expected much more from ourselves on the field. Our performances up to now have been bitterly disappointing and we realise that we have to raise our game significantly in the last three tournaments to keep alive our hopes of retaining our place on the circuit next season.”
Springbok Women’s Sevens pool fixtures in the Canada Sevens (April 18):
21:28 – USA vs SA
00:50 – Canada vs SA
03:28 – Russia vs SA
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