Springbok Sevens start preparations against Chile, Argentina
The Springbok Sevens team will get their pre-season preparation underway later this month with training matches against Chile and Argentina in Stellenbosch.
The South American teams will visit South Africa later this month as part of their preparations for the upcoming Pan American Games.
A core group of the contracted SA Sevens players have been training since August while the rest of the players as well as the group of junior contracted squad members have been involved in various Absa Currie Cup competitions.
“Players such as Boom Prinsloo (Toyota Free State Cheetahs), Sibusiso Sithole (The Sharks) and Steven Hunt (DHL Western Province) are playing in the Absa Currie Cup Premier Division while our junior players are in action in the Absa Currie Cup age group competitions.
“All of them will join us at the conclusion of their various provincial commitments, so we are looking at having the full contingent of squad members in camp at the end of October,” explains Paul Treu, the Springbok Sevens coach.
“Chile will be touring here from (today) 9 -18 September and we will assist them with their training programme and we have also agreed to a training match. Argentina starts their tour of SA on 25 September and they will be here until 2 October. At this stage we are looking at playing training matches against them (Argentina) on 30 September and 1 October,” added Treu.
In addition to these matches, the South African Sevens stars will also be in action in the traditional pre-season tournament at Middelburg (15 October) with Kenya, Zimbabwe and Namibia also in action.
Treu added that a three day camp is also on the cards for early November in Port Elizabeth, the new host city of the SA Sevens tournament (9-10 December 2011).
The Springbok Sevens finished as runners-up to champions New Zealand in the 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series after successive victories in the last two tournaments in England and Scotland.
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