In a somewhat surprising selection, national Sevens coach Neil Powell has left out of his Rio de Janeiro-bound squad Springbok stars Ryan Kankowski, Francois Hougaard and Bryan Habana.
The three names were the big absentees when the South African Olympic Games squad was announced today.
While Kankowski was always a touch-’n-go choice, mainly because of several injuries that ruled him out of the world sevens series, it was expected that Hougaard and Habana would make the final squad.
Both men featured regularly over the course of the season and even gave up several 15-man commitments to try push for a place in the Olympic squad.
In the end, Powell has selected those players with years of Sevens experience and South Africa will certainly start the rugby competition as one of the favourites to bag a gold medal. They finished the recently concluded world series in second place behind Fiji.
The Sevens Boks will have a wealth of experience to draw on and will also know they went all the way at the Commonwealth Games just two years ago.
The big “winner” in the squad is Werner Kok, World Rugby’s 2015 Sevens Player of the Year, who missed the entire season because of injury but has been included by Powell.
He will be joined by stalwarts like Cheslin Kolbe, Seabelo Senatla, Cecil Afrika, Kyle Brown and Rosko Specman.
The BlitzBoks are seeded second for the tournament which runs from August 6-11. They will compete in Pool B which also includes Australia, Spain and France.
Squad: Cecil Afrika, Tim Agaba, Kyle Brown, Juan de Jongh, Justin Geduld, Werner Kok, Cheslin Kolbe, Dylan Sage, Seabelo Senatla, Kwagga Smith, Philip Snyman, Rosco Specman - Independent Media