Sevens coach sets sights on Commonwealth Games

The retention of the IRB Sevens World Series rugby title is a fast-fading dream for the Springbok sevens side and a pragmatic Bok coach Paul Treu has now set his sights on the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

“Of course it remains our main goal to retain the IRB title,” said Treu yesterday, “but the reality is it will take not only a huge effort from the Springboks in the remaining six tournaments, but also some unlikely results from the front-runners in the competition for that to happen.

“It is a good time to start building for the future and that includes the Commonwealth Games as our first goal after the IRB Series.

“We have some very good young players and we still have six tournaments to get to the right combination and standard.”

Treu has four new caps in the side for the tournaments in Wellington (February 5-6) and Las Vegas (February 13-14) in Philip van der Walt, Steven Hunt, Hoffman Maritz and Branco du Preez, as well as Cecil Afrika, who has played in two tournaments so far.

But, points out Treu, some of the youngsters in the squad, as well as members of the training squad in Stellenbosch, should be at their peak in 2016 when sevens makes its debut at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“That’s six years from now. These guys will be between 25 and 27 years old by the time the Olympics take place – hard and experienced.

“We’ve worked very hard over the last fortnight,” Treu said.

“With the new players in the side it was important they gel and feel comfortable with the structures. They all had good tournaments in Argentina (Mar del Plata) and Sri Lanka (Asian Invitation) and the ability is there.

“One must remember, however, that this is a big step up and the rigorous training the past few weeks was partly to prepare the younger guys for the tougher and longer schedule of the IRB Series.”