World Cup star Bryan Habana heads a long list of 15s players included in South Africa sevens head coach Neil Powell plans for the forthcoming sevens season, which kicks off in Dubai on 4 December.
Bryan Habana’s glittering rugby career could take in the Olympics after he was named in South Africa’s 34-man sevens training squad for the 2015-16 season.
The extended squad will assemble for a three-week training camp in Stellenbosch on Sunday with Habana joining the group later this month after initally reporting back for club duty with Toulon in France.
Habana, who is the Springboks’ record try scorer with 64 tries from 117 test appearances, last played international sevens more than a decade ago. He was scheduled to play in the 2014 Commonwealth Games but Toulon didn’t release him in time.
During RWC 2015 he drew level with Jonah Lomu as the tournament’s leading try scorer, taking his tally to 15 with a hat-trick in the 64-0 defeat of USA.
Rugby World Cup team-mates, Damian de Allende and Lwazi Mvovo, are also included by head coach Neil Powell, and they are joined by fellow Springboks Juan de Jongh, Warren Whiteley, Cornal Hendricks and Oupa Mohoje, while Francois Hougaard and Ryan Kankowski have already signed contracts to play a season of sevens with the SARU.
In addition, provincial 15s stars Cheslin Kolbe, Ryno Benjamin, Warrick Gelant and Jaco Kriel have also been invited to join the camp alongside South Africa’s existing sevens squad.
“The announcement of this group is a significant achievement for us and it is the culmination of a lot of hard work behind the scenes by Neil Powell and Rassie Erasmus (the SARU’s rugby department general manager),” said SARU CEO Jurie Roux.
“The forthcoming season is the most important in the history of sevens rugby. The new, expanded World Series and the Olympic Games are two huge challenges and we at SARU want to make sure we give our Springbok Sevens team the best possible chance of success.
UNIQUE SKILL SET
“The signing of players such as Francois Hougaard and Ryan Kankowski is a real coup for us,” added Roux. “It means they will focus solely on the seven-a-side game in the coming season, bringing with them unique skill sets that our sevens department has identified as being ideal for the code.
“A number of other, highly talented 15-a-side players have also been identified as having great potential in sevens rugby and, working in conjunction with their provinces, we plan to expose them to tournament play during the course of the HSBC World Series.”
Hougaard, the Blue Bulls utility back, has played 35 tests for the Springboks and his contract will run from 1 November until after the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Former Sharks number 8 Kankowski, meanwhile, is set to join the Bok Sevens at the beginning of February and will remain with the team until August 2016, when the Olympics will be staged in Brazil.
Kankowski has already made four HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series appearances and he has earned 20 Test caps for the Springboks.
RAISING THEIR GAME
Powell was delighted with the new additions and said he and his management team were looking forward to the exciting prospects of working with the reinforced training squad. “We have a lot of talent in our existing group and there are some very talented players coming through our SARU Sevens Academy,” explained Powell.
“The addition of the group of Springbok and provincial players will raise our game significantly and present us with an opportunity to build an even stronger Springbok Sevens team. It is also fantastic for the brand of sevens in South Africa that players of the calibre of Hougaard and Kankowski have signed to play for us for a season,” Powell said.
Since taking over the coaching reins in 2014, Powell, has steered the Springbok Sevens to second place on the World Series log, the gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and automatic qualification for the Olympic Games.
Springbok Sevens training squad for 2015/2016 season:
Cecil Afrika, Tim Agaba, Ryno Benjamin, Kyle Brown, Branco du Preez, Carel du Preez, Damian de Allende, Stephan Dippenaar, Chris Dry, Juan de Jongh, Justin Geduld, Warrick Gelant, Lungelo Gosa, Bryan Habana, Cornal Hendricks, Francois Hougaard, Frankie Horne, Dewald Human,
Ryan Kankowski, Werner Kok, Cheslin Kolbe, Jaco Kriel, Oupa Mohoje, Lwazi Mvovo, Sibahle Maxwane, Ruhan Nel, Sandile Ngcobo, Sphamandla Ngcobo, Dylan Sage, Seabelo Senatla, Philip Snyman, Kwagga Smith, Rosko Specman, Warren Whiteley.
