The Springbok sevens rugby preliminary squad for the 2016 Olympics has been named by coach Neil Powell, with the 19 players selected preparing for the games in Brazil during the month of August.
Rio 2016 is the first Olympic games to feature rugby sevens as one of the sports on offer, and the South Africans are set to be amongst the teams fighting for medals in Brazil.
The 19 players that have been selected will take part in training camps before being whittled down to the final 12 during July. The dozen rugby players will form part of Team SA at the Olympics.
The Blitzboks currently have an interesting mix of players within the squad, including four who have Springbok test match experience.
Ryan Kankowski, Juan de Jongh, Francois Hougaard and Bryan Habana have chosen to focus their energy on the seven-man version of the game, at the expense of the traditional 15-man sport, in an effort to earn a place in the Olympic Springbok sevens team.
The HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in 2015/16 served as an excellent platform for the four players mentioned to prove their worth to coach Powell.
During the World Rugby Sevens Series South Africa performed well, finishing second overall, winning a tournament, while reaching four finals and eight semi-finals, according to WorldRugby.
Team regulars that have been included in the preliminary squad include the likes of Chris Dry, Kwagga Smith, Kyle Brown, Cheslin Kolbe, Rosko Specman, Branco du Preez, Cecil Afrika, Werner Kok, and Seabelo Senatla.
A few of the new players to have entered the fold this past season are also being considered for the final squad, namely Tim Agaba, Dylan Sage and Siviwe Soyizwapi.
Admitting the difficulty with which he came up with the preliminary squad, Powell was proud of the reaction of those who did not make the cut.
“I feel for those who did not make the squad, but was impressed by their support to the rest of the guys. One of our core values is to support each other and I am proud to say it was again executed by those who did not make it,” Powell said, according to Sport24.
“Looking at our objectives for the season, we obviously wanted to win the series but it was the year of the Olympics and we needed to test some more players, not just from the fifteens code, but also players that have been in our squad for a while,” he added.
“We wanted to give everybody a fair chance to stake his claim for a spot in the Olympic squad. Looking towards to the Olympics, the next two months are very important to us,” he said.
Mentioning preparations ahead of Rio 2016, the coach was visibly excited by the prospect of his side at the Olympics.
“We need to train with purpose and make sure we are ready come 9 August, when Rugby Sevens is played in Rio. We have a good mix of sevens and fifteens players and will play in one warm-up tournament early in July before we jet off to the Olympics,” concluded Powell.
Tim Agaba, Chris Dry, Ryan Kankowski, Kwagga Smith, Kyle Brown, Philip Snyman, Dylan Sage, Cheslin Kolbe, Rosko Specman, Branco du Preez, Cecil Afrika, Justin Geduld, Francois Hougaard, Juan de Jongh, Werner Kok, Ruhan Nel, Seabelo Senatla, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Bryan Habana.
