{"id":4376,"date":"2021-02-12T22:04:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T22:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=4376"},"modified":"2021-02-12T18:10:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T18:10:45","slug":"blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics","title":{"rendered":"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>CAPE TOWN – The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s national government extended their Covid-19 related travel ban on a number of countries.<\/p>\n

The tournaments at Campo UCM Central would have been the Springbok Sevens side\u2019s first run-out since the Vancouver leg of the World Series in March 2020, where the Blitzboks ended in fourth position. The matches in the Spanish capital were going to form part of the team\u2019s preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Ronald Brown joins experienced Blitzboks for trip to Spain<\/p>\n

South Africans are not allowed entry into Spain until March 2, ruling Neil Powell\u2019s team out of the two tournaments to be played on consecutive weekends \u2013 from 19-21 and 26-28 February.<\/p>\n

The Blitzboks were due to leave for Spain on Wednesday evening as the original travel ban was due to expire on that day, but it was extended this week.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Sevens coach Neil Powell still has Olympic success firmly in sight<\/p>\n

With another opportunity to gain some much-needed match fitness now taken away, Powell expressed his disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel for the players, already short on tournament time, as they worked really hard to get into match mode and we were in the final week of those preparations,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does show us however, how unpredictable things are all around the world at the moment. We spoke about being flexible leading up to the Olympics and this is living proof of that. We can only control the controllable and there is nothing we can do about this situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the players that the most successful team in the Olympics will be the one that can adapt best and not necessarily the one who played the most matches leading up to Tokyo.\u201d<\/p>\n

@WynonaLouw<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. CAPE TOWN – The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s national government extended their Covid-19 related travel ban on a number of countries. The tournaments at Campo UCM Central would have been the Springbok Sevens side\u2019s first run-out since the Vancouver leg of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-4376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nBlitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CAPE TOWN - The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s nati ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CAPE TOWN - The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s nati ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-12T22:04:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-12T22:04:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics\"},\"wordCount\":320,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics\",\"name\":\"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-12T22:04:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"CAPE TOWN - The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s nati ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":404,\"caption\":\"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics - South Africa","description":"CAPE TOWN - The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s nati ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics","og_description":"CAPE TOWN - The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s nati ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-02-12T22:04:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":404,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics","datePublished":"2021-02-12T22:04:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics"},"wordCount":320,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics","name":"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-12T22:04:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"CAPE TOWN - The Blitzboks will not be participating in the Madrid Sevens tournaments later this month after Spain\u2019s nati ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-6026c4776df07.jpg","width":720,"height":404,"caption":"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/blitzboks-need-to-sidestep-the-unpredictable-things-in-the-lead-up-to-olympics#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blitzboks need to sidestep the \u2019unpredictable things\u2019 in the lead up to Olympics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}