After winning gold twice and silver twice at BC Place in Vancouver in earlier versions of the Canadian leg of HSBC SVNS, the Springbok Sevens squad are well aware of their underwhelming performances in recent seasons.
According to co-captain Impi Visser, the Blitzboks are adamant to change their fortunes this year and to improve on their ninth-place finish from 2024, when the team looked out of sorts at times, to say the least.
Visser added that their effort on Friday evening (SA time) in their opening match against New Zealand, will be a unified one where everyone is sharing the same objectives.
“Last time around, we were a bit disjointed, and it showed in our play,” said Visser.
“Credit to the management who sorted all the little niggles out, as we arrived here a happy and determined squad, cold as it may be in Vancouver.
“The environment they created allows the relationship among the players to be as healthy as they can be, and we all flourish as a group because of that.”
'THE FOUNDATION WAS LAID'
That cohesion will reflect in their play, Visser feels, and the form book suggests the same. After winning the Cape Town tournament and a close fourth place finish in Perth, the necessary adjustments were made to be competitive in Canada as well.
“We had some calls not going our way in Perth, but we still played good rugby,” said Visser, who will share the captaincy duties with Selvyn Davids this weekend after Zain Davids was ruled out due to injury.
“We did very good work in the pre-season, so that foundation was laid and our success or not in tournaments will boil down to our execution on the day.
“We have some brilliant individual players who really bring something to the party, so the key for us is to combine as a team in order to benefit from those skilled players.”
The Vancouver leg is the fourth of the world series and an important one for the Blitzboks: “A good result here will help a lot towards our build-up for the Grand Finale in a couple of months.
"We are not results driven per se, and rather focussed on the execution and effort of our game plan, but a good result will be of great value to us.”