Treu hopes for better days
12 Jan 2010
Paul Treu says the Springbok Sevens’ poor start to their World Series title defence is mainly because of injuries and inexperience.
After the opening two tournaments in Dubai and George, the Blitzboks find themselves in a disappointing eighth spot on the World Series log, 32 points behind leaders New Zealand.
In the Boks’ defence, they do have a different squad that triumphed last season as players, such as Robert Ebersohn, Lionel Mapoe, Philip Snyman and Gio Aplon, have committed to their respective Super 14 franchises.
Injuries have also hampered Treu’s men this season as experienced campaigners, like Marius Schoeman, Neil Powell, Renfred Dazel and skipper Paul Delport, were sidelined during the campaign. This meant Treu had to depend on a weakened side.
‘It’s definitely been a disappointing start to the season,’ the head coach told keo.co.za. ‘We suffered some injuries at a late stage and had to rely on inexperienced players to fill in.
‘That’s something very difficult for me as the gap between our first team players and inexperienced guys is quite big. Some of the new players can’t cope at the same level.’
Treu, however, has enjoyed some success since their poor start as the SA Vipers won the Mar del Plata Sevens tournament in Argentina last week Thrusday, beating the hosts 29-7 in the final.
The team has also received some good news that Dazel and Powell are on their way back to match fitness.
‘It will be great to have them back in time for the trip to Wellington,’ said Treu. ‘We will begin preparations soon and hopefully sort out a few things before then.’
The Wellington Sevens kickoff on 5 February.
By Gareth Duncan
7 Comments
12 Jan 2010, 12:28 pm
Sevens is not the ultimate goal for a player. Therefore the return to the 15 man game.
12 Jan 2010, 20:03 pm
Paul Delport – When is he going to grow up and start playing big mans rugby?
Come on now any decent player should only ply one maybe 2 season of 7′s before moving up.
13 Jan 2010, 00:30 am
the bad start is because of your Ridiculous name ‘blitzbokke’ haha still makes me laugh every time I hear it
13 Jan 2010, 00:41 am
@Kiwisamoan:
The haka does the same thing to me boet
13 Jan 2010, 01:40 am
All teams are going to have to cope with injuries. You’re simply not doing your job if you don’t have your back-up men fully trained up so there isn’t any big drop-off in performance when any injured players can’t play. And their “campaign” is only three tournaments old so far. It’s barely commenced. And already the excuses are coming in thick and fast from Treu.
13 Jan 2010, 05:02 am
Hey Tockles, the trophy cabinet is too full, for the sake of good competition and not making rugby one sided we can take the foot off your neck now and again.
Talk when you win the world cup, sorry when your adopted country does.
Sevens is going Olympics, we should plan better for this and use specailist players here.
13 Jan 2010, 16:55 pm
@KevinRack: Right, it’s too full, time to start giving away. Sevens, S14, 3N will do for a start this year.
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