RUGBY NEWS - Zain Davids and Kurt-Lee Arendse have been called up to the Springbok Sevens team to do duty in Vancouver, Canada this weekend as the Blitzboks start their preparations for round six of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
Davids, who has played in 17 tournaments for the Blitzboks, will replace injured Ryan Oosthuizen in the forwards, while the uncapped Arendse joins the squad due to an injury to Mfundo Ndhlovu.
Muller du Plessis, who travelled to Las Vegas as the official reserve, replaced Ndhlovu before the final match at the HSBC Las Vegas Sevens tournament, where South Africa finished in a disappointing joint-seventh place.
Davids has been part of the Blitzboks' back-to-back World Series wins in 2017 and 2018, but for Arendse the trip across the Atlantic will be a special one. The 22-year-old is part of the SA Rugby Sevens Academy and he excelled for the Academy in tournaments in Dubai and South America recently, where he displayed his attacking abilities. He also played for the University of the Western Cape in the opening round of the FNB Varsity Cup before being called into the wider Blitzboks squad.
On Sunday, the Blitzboks came close in their fifth-place semifinal defeat against Fiji, but could not deliver the knock-out punch. A slow start again forced the South Africans into catch-up rugby as Fiji scored in the opening minute to take a 7-0 lead. Ryan Oosthuizen pulled one back three minutes later to cut the lead to two points, but Impi Visser was yellow-carded for a high tackle and Fiji exploited the numbers for a 14-5 lead at the break.
The second half saw some determined defence by South Africa and with a strong contribution on attack from the bench. JC Pretorius scored with a blistering run and when Selvyn Davids converted, making it a two point game with three minutes left. It went to the last play as the Blitzboks searched for the winner, but it ended metres from the Fiji line where the South Africans were penalised while on attack.
