Cape Town — The Blitzboks sure don't have it easy at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town this weekend, and that has nothing to do with their competition.
The South Africans play just one match on Friday and one on Saturday, while they will be in action twice on Sunday.
The Blitzboks take on Chile in the final match of Day One at 7.03pm, while their second match, again the last one for the day, is scheduled for 10.33pm on Saturday, 27 hours after their opener.
Given the inconducive schedule the hosts have been given, they have had to make some changes to how they would usually approach a tournament.
It would be easy to lose the momentum gained in the first match given the huge gap between their games, while lethargy is also a risk.
The team's strength and conditioning coach Ghafoer Luckan gave some insight into how they're going about working with the challenging schedule to keep the players fresh.
"We had a captain's run Friday morning, that was basically the last bit of fine-tuning before going into the tournament," Luckan said.
"It's also an opportunity to get out of the hotel and stretch the legs. We are only playing the one game at 7pm and the guys tend to become lethargic if they sit around their hotel rooms the whole day.
"We will also allow the guys to sleep in and not be up for breakfast early, as well as allowing them to take a power nap before the build-up to kick off begins.
"When we arrive to the stadium we will have an activation session, which consists of foam rolling, stretching and ending off with some short, explosive movements."
The Blitzboks will face Ireland in the Cup quarter-final on Saturday night, and seeing as that match only kicks off at 10.33pm, the team are of course going to get to the hotel late, and getting adequate sleep could be an issue.
"Saturday we will pretty much follow the same process as Friday, but instead of the captain's run, we will have activation session and walk-through in the morning to prepare for our next opponent.
"Sleep is the most important recovery modality and we make sure the boys get enough quality sleep.
"Sometimes it isn't possible with the schedule, for example, we're playing late on Saturday, and then we have to be up early on Sunday morning to hopefully play a semi-final."
While it's not an ideal situation, Luckan was confident that the team will adapt and make the best of it.
"That is something that's out of our control, but this team is good at adapting and controling what we can.
"We also have a pretty decent boom box and Angelo (Davids) and Shakey (Siviwe Soyizwapi) will make sure the vibe is good regardless of the limited sleep."
IOL Sport