Blitzbok coach Neil Powell shared how he is planning on getting his team ready to compete at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in minimal time.
Cape Town – The Springbok Sevens side will have very limited time to prepare for the Rugby World Cup Sevens following the final leg of the current World Series in Los Angeles, but they’ve put some good measures in place to make the most of the short turnaround time.
The LA tournament kicks off on 27 August, which will leave a little over a week before the World Cup – the first to be hosted in Africa – graces Cape Town from 9-11 September.
While chatting to the media in the Cape Town Stadium locker room – where the former Blitzbok captain gave a unique look-in into the team, including how the players psych themselves up before games – coach Neil Powell shared how they are planning on getting the guys ready to compete for the Melrose Cup in minimal time.
“We have some time to tweak a few changes, but we obviously can’t change too much,” Powell said.
“We knew the period before the Commonwealth Games was going to be our biggest preparation block, and as a management team we are trying our best to properly manage that jet lag coming back from LA.
“I think the first step in that is having secured an early flight from LA – so instead of arriving the Wednesday, we’ll land late the Tuesday night so that the guys can sleep in their own beds for one extra night.”
The Blitzboks won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as they produced a masterclass of note to silence Fiji in the final.
Now, as they turn their focus to the US event, the Blitzboks – who lead the series standings with just two points separating them from Australia – are looking at their testing LA schedule as a proper stepping stone to getting ready for the World Cup, where teams will have to win every single one of their games to stand a chance of lifting the Cup.
“If we had a choice, we obviously would have loved to have more time in between the two because as we know from experience from previous World Series events, coming back from LA or Canada, it does take a while for you to get over the jet lag,” Powell explained.
“In saying that, the group that we have in LA is probably having the best preparation we can get for the World Cup. Our first game will be against America, then we have Canada and New Zealand in the final game. If we make it through the pool stages, we could face Fiji or Ireland. It’s nice and tough.
“It’s a massive challenge and I think if we can get through that and still keep our momentum and confidence, it will contribute massively to what we want to achieve at the World Cup, which will be a straight knock-out … there are no second chances.”
