Treu's late arrival makes for tough week
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:33
The Springbok Sevens team includes two players who will make their debuts at the Adelaide Sevens this weekend as national coach Paul Treu starts building towards the Commonwealth Games and the next IRB Sevens World Series season.
Treu has included Sampie Mastriet and Chris Dry in the squad for their first taste of IRB Sevens, while four more players, Branco du Preez, Hoffman Maritz, JW Jonker and Steven Hunt, are in their first season of Sevens rugby at this level.
Jonker was a late inclusion in the squad after stand-in captain Mzwandile Stick had to pull out with a knee injury. Treu had already lost his skipper for the season, Paul Delport, in December in George with a serious ankle injury. Added to this, experienced players such as Neil Powell and Renfred Dazel are also injured.
Kyle Brown will lead the team for the first time.
Treu only departed for Australia on Wednesday after staying behind in Cape Town to be with his mother, who is ill in hospital.
"Its been a difficult week with me staying behind and the team also had a very long and arduous journey over to Australia. But the rest of the team management and the senior players know what to do and took control this week, while I remained in constant contact with them," said Treu.
"We’ve brought in a lot of new faces this season with a reason - we need to start building for the future and are now also looking at the Commonwealth Games and the Dubai and George tournaments in December.
"That is not to say we’re taking our title defence in Adelaide lightly. We’ll be going all out to win that tournament again, but we’ll be taking it game for game."
The a team played in warm-up game against Wales earlier today and according to Treu it went well.
"The key now is to get the players refreshed before the tournament starts on Friday. We need to build on the momentum we got by beating England and Fiji in the plate in Las Vegas," he said.
The Adelaide tournament, which was won by South Africa in 2008 and 2009, runs from Friday to Sunday. The Springbok Sevens are in Pool B with Samoa, recent winners in Las Vegas, as well as France and Japan.
A week later, from March 26 to 28, the IRB Sevens World Series moves to Hong Kong, where Treu’s team will be aiming for their first-ever Cup victory. South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Korea are in Pool F.
Springbok Sevens: Mpho Mbiyozo, Chase Minnaar, Frankie Horne, Cecil Afrika, Chris Dry, Kyle Brown (captain), Branco du Preez, Ryno Benjamin, Hoffman Maritz, JW Jonker, Sampie Mastriet, Steven Hunt.
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