Cape Town - The Blitzbokke side have avoided the “pool of death” following the Rio Olympics rugby sevens draw on Tuesday evening.
The Springbok Sevens will face Australia, France and Spain in what is arguably the most favourable group that Neil Powell’s team could’ve wished for after the draw was made in Rio on Tuesday.
The toughest group is Pool C, where New Zealand will face Kenya, Great Britain and Japan. Great Britain will field a combined team made up of players from England, Wales and Scotland, with the Irish Rugby Football Union insisting that their sevens players cannot turn out for Great Britain as they feature under a unified Ireland national team rather than Northern Ireland playing separately.
So the British side should be a powerful outfit, with the current training squad including England stars Tom Mitchell, Dan Bibby and Dan Norton, as well as Scotland’s Jamie Farndale, who was the top try-scorer among the British players in the last World Sevens Series.
Scotland also showed how much progress they have made in the shortest format of the game by beating the Blitzbokke in the London Sevens final in May, the final tournament of the year.
World Series winners Fiji won’t have it all their own way in Pool A either, as they take on defending Olympic champions USA (rugby was last played at the Olympics in 1924), Argentina and hosts Brazil, all of whom are capable of causing an upset on their day.
The Blitzbokke, though, will have a strong 12-man group in Rio, but coach Powell will have to whittle his squad down to that number from the 19 players who were named in the Olympic training squad 11 days ago.
Full Test Boks such as Francois Hougaard, Juan de Jongh, Bryan Habana and Ryan Kankowski are still in with a chance of going to Rio, with Hougaard and De Jongh probably sure of their places already. Other certainties are likely to be Stormers fullback Cheslin Kolbe, Seabelo Senatla, Kwagga Smith, Cecil Afrika, Kyle Brown, Philip Snyman and Werner Kok.
Habana played for his French club Toulon in the Top 14 final in Barcelona last Friday, and has not yet arrived at the Blitzbokke’ Stellenbosch training headquarters. Powell said when naming the training group that Habana “understands that his initial absence could count against him when I make my final selection” for Rio.
Kankowski and the rest of the squad will have a final chance to catch their coach’s eye on Friday and Saturday in an international sevens tournament that will take place at the Markotter Stadium alongside the Blitzbokke’ Stellenbosch base.
The international event will feature the full SA Sevens squad as well as the SA Sevens Academy, Kenya, Zimbabwe, a Namibian Invitational team and a Western Province Invitational team. Sixteen WP clubs will also take part in their own competition.
The men’s rugby competition in Rio takes place from August 9-11, and is preceded by the women’s event.
@IndyCapeSport
Olympic Rugby Sevens Draw
Pool A: Brazil, Fiji, USA, Argentina
Pool B: South Africa, Australia, France, Spain
Pool C: New Zealand, Kenya, Great Britain, Japan
Blitzbok Olympic Training Squad
Tim Agaba, Chris Dry, Ryan Kankowski, Kwagga Smith, Kyle Brown, Philip Snyman, Dylan Sage, Cheslin Kolbe, Rosko Specman, Branco du Preez, Cecil Afrika, Justin Geduld, Francois Hougaard, Juan de Jongh, Werner Kok, Ruhan Nel, Seabelo Senatla, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Bryan Habana.