SA vulnerable in Wellington Sevens

...South Africa have suffered a major blow ahead of the HSBC World Sevens Series tournament in Wellington on January 28-29 with the loss of star player Cecil Afrika. The 238-match veteran suffered a knee injury during training at the Blitzboks Stellenbosch base this week and was ruled out of the Wellington and Sydney tournaments in the series.

South Africa have already lost key forward Kyle Brown for the season after he tore knee ligaments during the last tournament at Cape Town.The South Africans lead the series following wins at the Dubai series opener and second place in Cape Town.

South African coach Neil Powell told timeslive.co.za, "We have lost over 100 tournaments worth of experience with Kyle and Cecil out of action.

"That said, we always knew that we needed to bring new players into the system and Zain [Davids] was earmarked as one of them.

"He has shown a good appetite for sevens and will now be tested at the highest level."

Davids played for South Africa as a flanker at last year's World Rugby Under-20 Championship and played for the SA Rugby Sevens Academy side in Dubai last year.

"Shakes [Siviwe Soyizwapi] played for us last year and will be keen to establish himself in the side, especially as Seabelo Senatla will be moving to fifteens.

"He did very well in the warm-up tournament in Namibia late last year and I am pleased to have him in the playing squad," he said.

Senatla will play in Wellington and Sydney before transferring to the Stormers for the Investec Super Rugby season. Senatla is only eight short of claiming the South African Sevens try-scoring record of 180, one more than Fabian Juries' record.

Powell said, "We have a tough pool in Wellington, but I am happy with the way the guys trained and came back from the break."

South Africa are paired with Olympic champions Fiji, Australia and Japan in their pool in Wellingon.

South Africa's side for Wellington is: Chris Dry, Philip Snyman (captain), Dylan Sage, Kwagga Smith, Werner Kok, Zain Davids, Branco du Preez, Rosko Specman, Justin Geduld, Siviwi Soyizwapi, Ruhan Nel, Seabelo Senatla, Sandile Ngcobo.

 ...Wellington Sevens by numbers
9: New Zealand have won nine titles out of the 18 tournaments played in Wellington. They won their first title in 2003 and will be going for a record fourth straight Wellington win in 2017.

7: Kids eat and play free at the Wellington Sevens with tickets just $7 per day for kids. Click here for more ticketing information. 
5: Five awesome New Zealand bands will be playing live across the weekend! They include Nesian Mystik, The Koi Boys, Kings, Maala, Nomad.

11: Nesian Mystik has had 11 top ten NZ singles – a record!
3: The Wellington tournament is the third leg of the 2016/17 Sevens World Series. The first two legs were held in Dubai and Cape Town. The fourth tournament will be held in Sydney on February 4-5.

16: Sixteen first class teams will take part in the Wellington Sevens. The teams are spread across four pools with four teams in each pool.

4: Four of New Zealand’s top chefs will be cooking gourmet food in the Wellington Sevens 

15: Speedsters Dan Norton (England) and Seabelo Senatla (South Africa) lead the 2016/17 Sevens World Series try scoring ladder with 15 tries each. Sherwin Stowers is the leading New Zealand player with 9 tries.

2: There are two days of fast-paced action to be enjoyed on 28-29 January.

1: There can be only one number 1! Who are you picking to take out the 2017 Wellington Sevens title?

 Will anyone show up for the Wellington Sevens ??...
...many are saying the Wellington Sevens has reached the end of it's life cycle and may be destined to leave the capital...It used to be one big party but then they tried to turn it into a family event..with overzealous security, over priced tickets, overpriced food...

 Kids eat and play free at the Wellington Sevens with tickets just $7 per day for kids. Click here for more ticketing information.

Great joke.

 ...you can bring your crayons and your colouring in book if you like..

 Brycy
It was not a tough situation for the Bltzbokke - but turns into a rally bad one for the AB's - they are up against Fiji tomorrow in the quarters.   the Blizbokke is playing France so that should not be too difficult a hu rdle for them.