Dubai Sevens: World Series preview with fixtures and Blitzbok squad

Dubai Sevens: Twenty international teams including our own Blitzboks have descended on Dubai for the 50th edition of the city’s Sevens event which also marks the beginning of the 2019/20 World Sevens Series.

New Zealand are defending champions in Dubai after they defeated the USA 21-5 in the final last year, their first victory in Dubai since 2009.

The All Blacks Sevens have scored the most points (28,224) and tries (4,490) in the history of the World Rugby Sevens Series and will face Wales, who survived a relegation battle with Japan last season, Samoa and Canada in Pool C.

Olympic gold medallists Fiji will be captained by Paula Dranisinukula this weekend. In a squad made up of some extremely experienced players, including World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Year 2019 Jerry Tuwai, one player will make his debut appearance in Dubai.

Kavekini Tabu, 25, is one of three brothers in the Fiji squad and will play alongside siblings Sevuloni Mocenacagi and Isoa Tabu when he takes to the field in the desert on Thursday.

“We are keeping our eye on the start of the series, you need to start early on the series, win tournaments early to be satisfied by the end of the season and then concentrate on the Olympics,” Dranisinukula said.

Fiji will play in Pool A alongside Argentina, who won the Sudamérica Rugby Sevens in July to secure their place at Tokyo 2020, Olympic hosts and invitational side Japan and France.

2019 series runners-up USA were the only team to reach every Cup semi-final last season and reached their first Cup final in Dubai last year only to lose to New Zealand.

USA only used 17 players last season, the smallest squad of any core team, and their second place finish was enough to secure their spot at Tokyo 2020.

“We’re all about togetherness, working hard, working together and just doing whatever it takes to succeed together,” said USA captain Madison Hughes.

“Digging in, working hard, you’re not going to be given anything, but you’ve got to go out there and take it. Any time you go out there, you’re going out to win. We’d love to go out and do that but it’s a new season, everyone starts on an even field and there are a lot of good teams.”

Facing USA in Pool B are Australia who will hand former sprinter Trae Williams his series debut this weekend. Williams switched from athletics to sevens in May and has a 100m personal best of 10.10 seconds, ranking him fifth on the Australian all-time list.

On Williams’ selection, Australia coach Tim Walsh said: “He has earned it. He has made a really good transition, a lot quicker than what we anticipated.

“The way he has trained and performed, he has been given the chance and earned the spot. He has a point of difference that is pretty remarkable and we want to be able to unleash that and build combinations and cohesion throughout this season.”

Completing the Pool B line-up are Scotland and Ireland. Ireland are welcomed as the new core team after winning the series qualifier in Hong Kong earlier this year.

As the invitational side at both the London and Paris earlier in the year, Dardis says the experience of playing on the world stage has been great preparation.

“They’ve been big learning curves for us but as an invitational side teams aren’t too aware of what you’re about, but now we’ve put a target on our backs probably so it’s a different story now as a core side,” he said.

“Playing 10 legs is going to be a long season so we’re going to have to be up for it, each week is going to be a massive challenge but we’re hugely excited about it. It’s what we’ve trained for for the last three or four years.”

Blitzboks in Dubai

Siviwe Soyizwapi will lead a vastly experienced Springboks Sevens squad featuring a number of returning veterans.

Former World Player of the Year, Seabelo Senatla, World Player of the Year nominee Rosko Specman and current SA Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, Dylan Sage, will return to the Blitzboks squad in Dubai alongside Ruhan Nel, who will don national colours for the first time in a year after he toured with the Springboks to Europe in November 2018.

Senatla, Sage and Nel return to the World Series after a year’s absence. They will join second-year Blitzboks in JC Pretorius and Kurt-Lee Arendse, who will take the field in Blitzbok colours for the first time in Dubai, having played for the SA Rugby Sevens Academy in last year’s tournament.

Ryan Oosthuizen, Chris Dry, Zain Davids, Selvyn Davids and Justin Geduld will again form the core of the team, with the latter nearing the 1000 points mark in the World Series.

Powell said selection was tough, especially as their preparations are well on track.

“I think we are better prepared compared to the same time last year,” said Powell.

“We had warm-up tournaments in Germany, Kenya and England and everyone had a good run in at least one of those. Selection was tough, as most of the regulars are available for the opening tournament.”

Blitzbok squad

1. Chris Dry (68 tournaments, 342 matches; 465 points, 93 tries)
2. Ryan Oosthuizen (17 tournaments,83 matches; 85 points, 17 tries)
3. Dylan Sage (24 tournaments, 134 matches; 155 points, 31 tries)
4. Zain Davids (18 tournaments, 88 matches; 60 points, 12 tries)
5. JC Pretorius (five tournaments, 27 matches; 55 points; 11 tries)
6. Siviwe Soyizwapi (captain; 28 tournaments, 145 matches; 445 points, 89 tries)
7. Selvyn Davids (14 tournaments, 69 matches; 300 points; 31 tries, 71 conversions, 1 penalty)
8. Rosko Specman (28 tournaments, 150 matches; 380 points; 70 tries, 15 conversions)
9. Justin Geduld (46 tournaments, 239 matches; 951 points;104 tries, 214 conversions, 1 penalty)
10. Kurt-Lee Arendse (four tournaments, 16 matches; 45 points, nine tries)
11. Seabelo Senatla (39 tournaments, 203 matches; 1120 points, 224 tries)
12. Ruhan Nel (28 tournaments, 147 matches; 247 points; 49 tries, 1 conversion)
13. Christi Grobbelaar (on debut)

Dubai Sevens fixtures day one and two

Thursday, December 5

Samoa vs Canada – 15:06
New Zealand vs Wales – 15:28
Australia vs Scotland – 15:50
USA vs Ireland – 16:12
France vs Argentina – 16:40
Fiji vs Japan – 17:02
England vs Spain – 17:32
South Africa vs Kenya – 17:45

Friday, December 6

Samoa vs Wales – 09:14
New Zealand vs Canada – 09:36
Australia vs Ireland – 09:58
USA vs Scotland – 10:20
France vs Japan – 10:42
Fiji vs Argentina – 11:04
England vs Kenya – 11:26
South Africa vs Spain – 12:48
Canada vs Wales – 15:06
New Zealand vs Samoa – 15:28
Scotland vs Ireland – 15:50
USA vs Australia – 16:12
Argentina vs Japan – 16:40
Fiji vs France – 17:02
Spain vs Kenya – 17:32
South Africa vs England – 17:45