Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Blitzboks begin their push for back-to-back Cape Town Sevens titles when they open their Pool A campaign against Fiji at 12:44 pm on Saturday.
The team arrives home after a difficult outing in Dubai, where two early losses left them under pressure despite a stronger finish on Day Two.
De Koning says the new eight-team series format leaves ‘no easy games’, with no quarterfinals and only the top four sides progressing to the Cup round.
“There’s a lot of expectation on them always. Everybody thinks it’s their home tournament. They should easily win it. The whole problem is that the whole system has changed. Previously, you had plenty of teams. You had 16 teams. Now you’ve only got eight teams, which means there’s no quarterfinals. There are no second chances. If you lose, you’re virtually guaranteed that you’re not going to make the playoffs.”
Drawn alongside Fiji, New Zealand and Great Britain, South Africa face a tough pool, with Fiji and New Zealand long-established forces in the shortened format.
Despite their rocky start, De Koning believes the Blitzboks can still build toward the overall series title, pointing to last season when they struggled early but clinched the decisive final round to finish as world champions.
Consistency, he says, will be key as they chase points through the season.
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