BlitzBoks 'far from their best'
The BlitzBoks arrived back home – ahead of the Cape Town leg, Round Two of the Sevens World Series – after making a big statement with their 26-14 win over current Series and Olympic champions Fiji in the Final in Dubai at the weekend.
Springbok Sevens captain Philip Snyman is adamant there is room for improvement and that even a better effort will be needed if they want to defend the Cape Town title from a number of strong challenges next weekend.
The Cape Town leg will be contested on December 10 and 11 December.
Snyman said they will need to improve in a number of areas to remain on top of the standings.
"There will be expectations," Snyman said of playing in front of their home crown.
"Yes, it was a great tournament for us in Dubai, but there is room for improvement.
"We are far from the best we can be.
"We did well at the weekend and played a very good Final against Fiji, but there are a number of areas we can improve on this week going into Cape Town.
"It is the one opportunity we have to play in front of our home support and we are really are looking forward to that.
"We really cherish this opportunity."
Cecil Afrika, one of the stars in Dubai, echoed similar sentiment than his captain, saying the opportunity at home comes around only one a year and they have to make the best of the chance to give South Africans something to cheer about in a year which saw the 15-a-side Springboks slump to sixth on the world rankings and suffered an unprecedented eight defeats in a calendar year.
"This has been a challenging year for South African rugby," Afrika said.
"We need to focus on our game and ensure we produce the best standards we can."
Dubai was Snyman's first victory as captain of the team and he felt it was an important one for the squad.
"It is always nice to have some continuity and confidence going into a tournament and we have some of that now," he said.
"That is good, but we also know we can and must improve if we want some results this weekend."
