The Blitsbokke Champions and their alma maters

The South African Sevens side passed New Zealand on the standings of the IRB Sevens Series with their 14-7 victory over them at the final of the USA leg of the series in Las Vegas. This was the Blitsbokke’s second successive tournament win. The Blitsbokke now lead the series with 78 points with the New Zealanders in second place with 77 points with still five tournaments to play.

True to School of Rugby‘s nature we are having a look at the schools the individual players attended. Two schools, Grey College of Bloemfontein and Harmony Sportsacademy of Virginia both have two representatives in the squads that was victorious at Las Vegas and in Port Elizabeth. Grey College’s representatives are Chris Dry and Philip Snyman. Dry played most of his rugby in Grey College’s second side the Cherries, while Snyman did represent the school’s first XV as well as the Free State’s Craven Week side.

The Harmony Sport Academy’s Cecil Afrika and Branco du Preez are two products of the @lantic Sevens series. Both of them played in the inaugural @lantic Series. Another player from the central region is Seabelo Senatla who played scrumhalf for Riebeeckstad. Riebeeckstad also partly produced Springbok centre, Wynand Olivier. He left Riebies for Affies in Pretoria in grade 10. Senatla replaced Cheslin Kolbe (Brackenfell) for the Las Vegas tournament. 

The inspirational captain of the Blitsbokke is a product of SACS in Cape Town. The veteran Frankie Horne matriculated at Hugenote in Wellington. The other two players who was part of the squad in both the tournament are Werner Kok (Nelspruit HS) and Sampie Mastriet (HTS Drostdy). Kok scored the winning try against New Zealand in Las Vegas.

Kwagga Smith (HTS Middelburg) and Steven Hunt (Grey Boys’ High School) played in Port Elizabeth but missed the tournament in the United States. Stephan Dippenaar (Paul Roos Gimnasium) and Rosko Speckman (Mary Waters) replaced them.  

The coach of the Blitsbokke, Neil Powell was captain of Sentraal in Bloemfontein when they were crowned champions of the Free State Administrator’s Cup in 1995.

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Hannes Nienaber

Hannes Nienaber covered schools' rugby in South Africa for Volksblad, Beeld, and Rapport for 11 years. He also created the biggest school rugby website in South Africa - School of Rugby - back in 2007. It eventually morphed into Supersport Schools Plus. He still occasionally milks cows.

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