Cape Town — The Blitzboks are missing up to 15 players due to injuries, and in a quest to secure automatic Olympic qualification, coach Sandile Ngcobo is trying to call on a few old warhorses for the last four rounds – with the help of Rassie Erasmus.
The Springbok Sevens endured a nightmare two weeks in North America recently, crashing out of the LA Sevens in the US in the quarter-finals, while they were unable to get out of their group at the Canada Sevens a week later in Vancouver.
That has seen them drop from second to seventh on the World Series standings, with four tournaments remaining to end in the top four and make it to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
South Africa are on 89 points, and trail log leaders New Zealand (120), Argentina (108), France (95), Fiji (94), Australia (94) and Samoa (89), with the next event in Hong Kong (March 31-April 2), followed by Singapore (April 8-9), France (May 12-14) and England (May 20-21).
But key figures such as Selvyn Davids, Dewald Human, Justin Geduld and Ronald Brown have been sidelined with injuries in recent months, and that has resulted in Ngcobo utilising director of rugby Erasmus to try to recruit some established Blitzboks stars who are now plying their trade in the 15-man code.
“We are not an excuse team, but to give you context, we are faced with 15 injuries – 10 are senior players and five juniors who are still coming back from injuries. It is extremely difficult to build momentum or get momentum, and reach your goals without those key players in hand,” Ngcobo said during a press conference in Stellenbosch this week.
“Our goal is still to qualify and end up in the top four, which grants us automatic qualification for the Olympics. The challenge is that everyone is in competition: Under-19s, Under-20s, URC and we are in competition as well. So, everyone wants to do well, and it’s a process.
“That is why we have Rassie, uncle Charles (Wessels) and Marius Schoeman working behind the scenes to try to get us a JC Pretorius (Lions) back, a Yaw Penxe (Sharks), a Rosko Specman (Griquas) – just to help us to get some sort of experience back so that it doesn’t take us that long to bring them in and develop them.
“We just need a solution for right now, until our injured players return.”
Ngcobo added that there was some good news on the injury front.
“Sean Williams shouldn’t be too far off, about two weeks off. Dewald Human and Selvyn Davids will be available for Paris and London. Justin tweaked his groin again, so that’s a bit of a setback,” the coach added.
“It takes about four to six academy tournaments to develop a player, which is about a year. And then due to Covid, there were no competitions overseas, which meant that we had to compete locally, which was not enough.
“So, the turnaround for developing a player is now one month, which is really not enough. So, we really have to put in work into developing a player, and how we gauge that is by giving him an opportunity on the world stage.”
Erasmus said that it was a difficult time of the year to sign players from 15s for the Blitzboks, due to several tournaments on the go at the moment, such as the URC, Under-20s and Varsity Cup.
Charles Wessels, Saru’s general manager of the rugby department, said that three players will be joining the Blitzboks on Sunday evening, and one after Monday’s Varsity Cup games, while there are also negotiations with a few provinces for other players.
“Sometimes we are competing, but they are not really competing with the franchises, because Rosko Specman and Griquas want to win the Currie Cup. Now, for them to give us a player, it’s a bit of ‘Please, thank you, can you help me out here and there?’,” Erasmus said.
“Sometimes it all comes together and the timing is perfect and everybody understands it. But other times it’s, ‘Guys, we are under pressure ourselves. You just took all our Springboks out of the URC, and now you want Yaw from the Sharks’.
“So, sometimes it’s just the timing in the year, because everybody is under pressure, and then it’s difficult.
“I think at the moment, people see that this is a match between the 15s and sevens, but it is certainly not. Yes, the Blitzboks have carried us through the years when we certainly struggled and the Boks were number six in the world. The Blitzboks was this shining light, and doing really well.
“But a big role that they are doing currently is to … They wanted Kurt-Lee Arendse, and we took him. They wanted Canan Moodie, and we took him. We don’t see that as a tug-of-war, and who is going to win eventually.
“(It’s about) thank you for bringing us this player through, and go and find the next gem. Yes, winning will always be important, and we will get criticised and understand the pressure of being criticised.
“But we are not going to give a s**tload of excuses about why things are happening. We are going to find solutions around it. As the director of rugby, I must let him concentrate on his coaching, getting players through, finding new players, and getting them ready.
“Hopefully in the next three or four tournaments, we can get into a qualifying position.”
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