Snyman believes mental focus will be key for the Blitzboks in Spain
· Citizen
The Blitzboks know that they are physically up for the challenge to deliver the best season in the history of the Springbok Sevens, as they chase the Spanish sevens title at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla in Valladolid this weekend.
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It is the second of three HSBC SVNS World Championship events, with the Blitzboks having won the first in Hong Kong last month, and coach Philip Snyman believes the key to their approach will be mental.
The Blitzboks have two Pool A encounters on Friday, against Great Britain and Kenya, and on Saturday they face Australia.
“There is no doubt that we will need our best performance of the season to be successful here this weekend,” said Snyman.
“We will need to play as a team where every individual delivers his best effort. We have identified certain focus points and how to make them smaller by zooming into them. One of those is to focus on ourselves and what we need to do, and not the opponents as such.”
Bigger picture
The Blitzboks are aware of the bigger picture – being in a good position to win both the HSBC SVNS Series and the World Championship – but that is not where the focus has been in their preparations back home, or this week in sunny Valladolid.
“We have a good group of players here and all have done well during the season – from the most experienced players to the newer ones we brought into our squad this season – and we have prepared well,” said Snyman.
“We know what we are capable of, but this will still require a fresh start for this tournament and for that matter, we do not look past the opening match against Great Britain.”
The Blitzbok coach was happy with their only training session of the week on Tuesday and said there was good energy and synergy in the squad: “We just needed to get those flights out of the systems and that worked, so we are ready. The players are in a good space as well, so we are looking forward to the weekend, but from a match perspective, it all starts against Great Britain.”
South Africa’s Pool A fixtures
Friday 29 May
v Great Britain – 12:34pm
v Kenya – 5:08pm
Saturday 30 May
v Australia – 1:23pm