SA Rugby on Tuesday announced the appointment of dynamic Free State Cheetahs flank Kabamba Floors as Springbok Sevens captain for the first two tournaments in the International Rugby Board Sevens Series.
Floors will lead South Africa in the opening tournament on December 1 and 2 in Dubai and a week later on home soil in George.
Last week the popular Springbok Sevens veteran scooped two top prizes at the Absa South African Rugby Player of the Year Awards — the Absa Currie Cup Player of the Year and the SA Rugby Players’ Player of the Year accolade.
Floors will lead a national squad of 31 sevens players in a second preparation camp in Durban, which will run from November 8 to 14 and include a fair number of practice matches against the local Sharks Sevens outfit.
Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu said he was extremely excited by the appointment of Floors as captain.
”Kabamba is in the form of his life. He always leads by example and is a player that really put his body on the line for his team. I think he will be a fantastic captain,” said Treu.
Treu and the national selectors included three newcomers in the training squad. They are Jovan Bowels (Falcons), Howard Noble and Conrad Stoltz (both Sharks). A unique feature of the squad is the inclusion of two pairs of brothers — Sarel (Falcons) and Herman Pretorius (Free State Cheetahs), and Natalians Howard and Dusty Noble.
Not considered due to injury were Marvin Christians, Conrad Hoffmann (Vodacom Western Province) and Danwick Davids (Eastern Province).
”The first camp went reasonably well and the aim would now be to record as much game time as possible and to continue with our conditioning programme to ensure we arrive in Dubai in good shape,” explained Treu. — Sapa