Sevens
South Africa’s team for the Hong Kong Sevens tournament is largely unknown and they’ll be coming up against some big names
RUGBY: Adrian Oosthuizen
SOUTH AFRICAN rugby fans will be hoping that some of the sparkle which saw the country emerge as world champions in 1995 will rub off on the team of exciting new talent representing the country at this year’s Cathay Pacific/Hong Kong Bank Sevens.
If South Africa’s mission to this year’s tournament is successful, coach Dawie Snyman’s team will by flying back to Johannesburg early next week with a shining new trophy to place next to the World Cup. But that glory won’t come easy. Sevens stalwarts like New Zealand, Fiji and Western Samoa are very territorial when it comes to Hong Kong’s premier sports event.
And if the All Blacks have anything to do with it, captain Eric Rush will have the trophy in his hands on Sunday night to make it a hattrick of victories.
South Africa must first get past the quarterfinal hurdle, where the team has always stumbled on previous occasions. The team captained by Western Province’s Dion O’Cuinneagan and coached by former Springbok Snyman has yet to make its mark on Asian soil.
Manager Wynand Claassen, former Springbok captain in the turbulent years of sporting isolation, is hoping the young talent nurtured through developing sides in South Africa will thrive in Hong Kong. Players like Breyton Paulse, Charlton April and Nigel Witbooi may be unknowns but they now have the opportunity to thrill an international audience. They only have to look at the unknown Jonah Lomu of 1994 for inspiration.
Because of South Africa’s exclusion from the world sports arena, the country only received its first invitation to play in Hong Kong in 1993.
In that year the country took part in the
Hong Kong Sevens and the World Cup Sevens in Edinburgh, reaching the quarterfinal in both tournaments. In Hong Kong the team lost 12-20 to New Zealand.
In 1994 an epic encounter with the mighty Fijians saw the men in green and gold go down 12-14 in the last few minutes of the game. Last year New Zealand prevented South Africa from qualifying for the semis and the All Blacks went on to beat Fiji 35-17 in the final.
For many years South African rugby fans have been making the annual pilgrimage to the Far East for the last weekend in March when one of the world’s liveliest sporting events is staged. But they had to wait for 1993 before they could finally give their side a rousing welcome when they ran onto the Hong Kong Stadium pitch for the first time.
Top South African players like Andre Joubert, Chris Badenhorst and Chester Williams have played in the event in previous years. Flyhalf O’Cuinneagan has developed into one of the world’s Sevens specialists and will play a pivotal role in the side’s success. But this year Claassen seems overly cautious about expecting too much from his team. “After four years we’re still wearing baby shoes”, he said.
In 1986 the All Blacks beat the French Barbarians 31-12 in the final and began to stamp their authority on the tournament. But the only side so far to make it three wins in a row has been Fiji who triumphed from 1990- 1992 and have always impressed with their Pacific flair.
The impact of professionalism on rugby is being felt this year at the Sevens. The Super 12 tournament has meant that the All Blacks who usually assemble their team several weeks before the tournament will only practise for a week together.
English players have found that their club contracts outweigh national commitments at the end of the pay day. Unlike other nations like New Zealand, England’s stars are not obligated to turn out for the national sevens squad. South Africa selects its sevens team from the annual provincial showcase the Winfield Sevens, but failed to attract any of the big name Springbok players.
This year will be the first time that all Five Nations participants will take to the field in Hong Kong. Ieuan Evans, hero of Wales’ stunning Five Nation victory over France, will lead his coun-
try’s sevens contingent. England, despite the withdrawal of several top stars, will still have a core of players who won the world sevens title in Edinburgh including Neil Back and Jon Sleightholme.
Veteran Namibian player Gerrit Mans will lead the only other African contender to this year’s sevens tournament.
Coaches usually spend the week before the tournament transforming their players from 15- man “team think” into a smooth running sevens machine.
After the pool matches on Friday evening and Saturday involving 24 teams from throughout the world the serious stuff starts on Sunday when teams compete for the cup, bowl and plate on a knockout basis.
Sevens fans would love to see a clash between old adversaries South Africa and New Zealand. If this happens the South Africans will have their work cut out to stop the All Black juggernaut Lomu from keeping the scoreboard turning over in an electronic blur.
Lomu has always loved the sevens. It’s where he made his mark before coach Laurie Mains gave him the nod to play 15-man rugby for the All Blacks.
Lomu told newsmen in Hong Kong this week that he was itching to take to the field. “It all started here,” he said,”My rugby career took off in Hong Kong and I will always be grateful for this.” It was a traumatic week for Lomu before the sevens — he fell out with his parents after secretly marrying South African Tanya Rutter. But he seems to have put all that behind him for the moment and is looking foward to the weekend.
Lomu burst onto the Sevens scene in 1994 as an 18-year-old and last year his awesome presence dovetailed neatly into his World Cup fselection soon after the Hong Kong tournament. This year Lomu returns as one of the game’s highest paid players reportedly earning $4 million a year.
At the end of the day it will be the 40 000 fans per day who will create the atmospere at this year’s tournament. Fans will travel from throughout the world to the stadium where last year Fiji’s little master Waisale Serevi had the crowds bowing in adoration when he caught the whole New Zealand defence wrong footed to score, rushed back and converted his try with a one step run up. But it wasn’t enough to keep New Zealand from winning 35-17.
It is the fans who roared at the sight of Jonah Lomu tearing the defence apart, David Campese overcoming jovial hostility with a flash of brilliance or cheering on the underdogs. This will be the 21st Hong Kong Rugby Sevens and like any 21-year-old, it expects to be taken seriously on the world sporting calender.