Blitzboks aiming high at Paris Olympic Games

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Despite a dismal season in World Rugby’s Sevens Series, the Blitzboks are aiming high. They want to improve on their performance at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games where they won the bronze medal.

The team is currently in camp in Johannesburg preparing for this month’s Paris Olympic Games.

The Blitzboks left it late, but they eventually qualified for the Paris Olympics, by winning last month’s Sevens tournament in Monaco. In doing so, they claimed the 12th qualifying spot.

In Rio Olympic Games they were beaten by Great Britain in the semi-finals and went on to defeat Japan in the bronze medal match.

Blitzboks coach, Philip Snyman was part of the team in Rio as a player, and he hopes to guide the team to even greater heights in Paris.

“You look back now, I was fortunate enough to still be playing in 2016 getting a bronze medal. We will not go to the Olympics and just call ourselves Olympians and we are working for something bigger than ourselves. So we will go out and give our utmost best.”

The Blitzboks are in a tough pool comprising of New Zealand, Ireland and Japan. But Snyman believes they have what it takes to overcome all the obstacles.

“We are playing the first game against Ireland and second game against New Zealand, both those teams are very physical, they will come for us at breakdown and if we can man up there we will be in for a good chance. And our third pool game on the day we can lay a good foundation. On day one we will give ourselves a good chance.”

Having had to qualify for the Paris Olympics through the World Rugby Sevens Repechage tournament in Monaco, was a blessing in disguise. It was ideal preparation for the Games.

“We told ourselves that let’s use the last tournament to prepare for the Olympics. To give yourself a chance at the Olympic games you must be there, so the guys will be hungry to put the season behind them. And there were glimpses of what this team can do in the last tournament especially in the final against Britain they showed they can beat any team and we can go there with lots of confidence.”

South Africa will kick-off their campaign against Ireland and New Zealand on the first day of the event. The tournament starts on the 24th of July, two days before the Opening Ceremony.