South Africa national rugby sevens team

This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see South Africa women's national rugby sevens team.

South Africa

Nicknames	Springbok Sevens, Blitzboks, Blitzbokke
Emblem	Springbok
Union	South African Rugby Union
Head coach	Sandile Ngcobo (rugby union)
Captain	Selvyn Davids
Top scorer	Cecil Afrika (1,430)
Top try scorer	Seabelo Senatla (224)
First colours Second colours
Rugby World Cup Sevens
Appearances	8 (First in 1993)
Best result	Runners-up (1997)

The South African national rugby sevens team, commonly known as the Springbok Sevens, competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. Overall, the team has won the World Rugby Sevens Series 4 times, as well as having won 40 tournaments in the series.

History

After readmission to international sport following the ending of the apartheid ban, the team played their first sevens series in the 1993 Hong Kong Sevens, and also participated in the 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens. They also played in the Hong Kong Sevens for the next two seasons. In 1996, they also took part in the Punta Del Este Sevens in Uruguay and the Dubai Sevens.

They participated in the 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens the following year as well as in 1998, they played three South American tournaments – the Mar Del Plata Sevens in Argentina, the Punta Del Este Sevens and the Viña del Mar Sevens in Chile. 1999 saw them participate in the Mar Del Plata Sevens, the Santiago Sevens in Chile, the Fiji Sevens, the Hong Kong Sevens, the Japan Sevens and the Paris Sevens.

At the end of 1999, the first World Rugby Sevens Series (then the IRB Sevens World Series) started and the team have been participating in that series ever since. In addition to the Sevens Series, they also played in the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Commonwealth Games, the World Games and, from 2016 onwards, the Olympic Games.

The team's nickname, "Blitzboks", is derived from "blitz" an Afrikaans word meaning lightning, and the derivative of Springbok ("Bok"), the official emblem of the South African rugby team.

Tournament history

Summer Olympics

Olympic Games record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	L	D
2016	Bronze medal match	3rd	6	4	2	0
2020	Fifth place match	5th	6	5	1	0
2024	Bronze medal match	3rd	6	3	3	0
Total	0 Titles	2/2	18	12	6	0

Rugby World Cup Sevens

World Cup Sevens record
Year	Round	Position	Played	Won	Lost	Drew
1993	Quarterfinals	5th	8	6	2	0
1997	Final	2nd	7	6	1	0
2001	Quarterfinals	5th	6	5	1	0
2005	Quarterfinals	5th	6	4	2	0
2009	Quarterfinals	5th	4	3	1	0
2013	Quarterfinals	5th	4	3	1	0
2018	Semifinals	3rd	4	3	1	0
2022	7th place final	7th	4	2	2	0
Total	0 Titles	8/8	43	32	11	0

Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	L	D
1998	Quarterfinalists	5th	5	4	1	0
2002	Semifinalists	3rd	6	5	1	0
2006	Plate Finalists	6th	6	3	3	0
2010	Semifinalists	3rd	6	5	1	0
2014	Champions	1st	6	6	0	0
2018	Semifinalists	4th	5	3	2	0
2022	Champions	1st	6	6	0	0
Total	2 Titles		40	32	8	0

World Games

Tournament	Placing
2005 Duisburg	2nd (Silver)
2009 Kaohsiung	3rd (Bronze)
2013 Cali	1st (Gold)

World Rugby Sevens Series

Main article: South Africa at the World Rugby Sevens Series

Series Record

Season	Position
1999–00	5th
2000–01	5th
2001–02	2nd
2002–03	4th
2003–04	5th
2004–05	4th
2005–06	3rd
2006–07	4th
2007–08	2nd
2008–09	1st
2009–10	6th
2010–11	2nd
2011–12	5th
2012–13	2nd
2013–14	2nd
2014–15	2nd
2015–16	2nd
2016–17	1st
2017–18	1st
2018–19	4th
2019–20	2nd
2021	1st
2021–22	2nd
2022–23	7th
2023–24	7th
Total	-

Series tournament wins

South Africa won the following tournaments on the Sevens World Series since its inception in 1999–2000:

40 Tournament wins (up to 06/12/2022)

Cup wins

Season	Tournament	Final opponent	Score
2001–02	2002 Wellington Sevens	Samoa	17–14
2002–03	2003 Cardiff Sevens	Argentina	35–17
2003–04	2003 Dubai Sevens	New Zealand	33–26
	2004 Singapore Sevens	Argentina	24–19
2004–05	2005 London Sevens	England	21–12
2005–06	2006 Paris Sevens	Samoa	33–12
2006–07	2006 Dubai Sevens	New Zealand	31–12
2007–08	2008 Adelaide Sevens	New Zealand	15–7
2008–09	2008 Dubai Sevens	England	19–12
	2008 South Africa Sevens	New Zealand	12–7
	2009 Adelaide Sevens	Kenya	26–7
2010–11	2011 USA Sevens	Fiji	24–14
	2011 London Sevens	Fiji	24–14
	2011 Edinburgh Sevens	Australia	36–35
2012–13	2013 USA Sevens	New Zealand	40–21
	2013 Japan Sevens	New Zealand	24–19
	2013 Scotland Sevens	New Zealand	28–21
2013–14	2013 South Africa Sevens	New Zealand	17–14
	2014 USA Sevens	New Zealand	14–7
2014–15	2014 Dubai Sevens	Australia	33–7
	2014 South Africa Sevens	New Zealand	26–17
2015–16	2015 South Africa Sevens	Argentina	29–14
2016–17	2016 Dubai Sevens	Fiji	26–14
	2017 Wellington Sevens	Fiji	26–5
	2017 Sydney Sevens	England	29–14
	2017 USA Sevens	Fiji	19–12
	2017 Paris Sevens	Scotland	15–5
2017–18	2017 Dubai Sevens	New Zealand	24–12
	2018 Paris Sevens	England	24–14
2018–19	2019 Vancouver Sevens	France	21–12
	2019 Singapore Sevens	Fiji	20–19
2019–20	2019 Dubai Sevens	New Zealand	15–00
	2020 Los Angeles Sevens	Fiji	29–24
2021	2021 Vancouver Sevens	Kenya	38–05
	2021 Edmonton Sevens	Great Britain	24–12
2021–22	2021 Dubai Sevens	USA	42–7
	2021 Dubai Sevens	Australia	10–7
	2022 Malaga Sevens	Argentina	24–17
	2022 Sevilla Sevens	Australia	33–7
2022–23	2022 Dubai Sevens	Ireland	21–5
2023–24	2023 Dubai Sevens	Argentina	12–7

Players

Current squad

The following players have been selected to represent South Africa during the 2023–24 SVNS tournament beginning in December 2023.

Note: Caps reflect the total number of SVNS events competed in as of the 2023 South Africa Sevens.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Zain Davids	Forward	(1997-05-04) 4 May 1997	42	Unattached
Christie Grobbelaar	Forward	(2000-05-25) 25 May 2000	18	Unattached
Katlego Letebele	Forward	(2003-11-18) 18 November 2003	2	Unattached
Masande Mtshali	Forward	(2003-07-10) 10 July 2003	7	Unattached
Ryan Oosthuizen	Forward	(1995-05-22) 22 May 1995	45	Unattached
Impi Visser	Forward	(1995-05-30) 30 May 1995	34	Unattached
Ronald Brown	Back	(1995-09-02) 2 September 1995	15	Unattached
Selvyn Davids (c)	Back	(1994-03-26) 26 March 1994	31	Unattached
Justin Geduld	Back	(1993-10-01) 1 October 1993	56	Unattached
Dewald Human	Back	(1995-05-19) 19 May 1995	24	Unattached
Quewin Nortje	Back	(2003-01-14) 14 January 2003	2	Blue Bulls
Rosko Specman	Back	(1989-04-28) 28 April 1989	32	Griquas
Shilton van Wyk	Back	(1999-12-22) 22 December 1999	15	Unattached

Records and statistics

Previous squads

The previous South African Sevens squads are as follows:

Player records

The following tables show the leading career South Africa players based on statistics from the World Rugby Sevens Series. Players in bold are still active.

Tries scored

No.	Player	Tries
1	Seabelo Senatla	230
2	Cecil Afrika	179
3	Fabian Juries	179
4	Justin Geduld	114
5	Siviwe Soyizwapi	117

Matches

No.	Player	Matches
1	Branco du Preez	397
2	Chris Dry	373
3	Kyle Brown	347
4	Cecil Afrika	345
5	Frankie Horne	344

Points

No.	Player	Points
1	Cecil Afrika	1462
2	Branco du Preez	1402
3	Seabelo Senatla	1150
4	Justin Geduld	1049
5	Fabian Juries	925

Award winners

The following South Africa Sevens players have been recognised at the World Rugby Awards since 2004:

World Rugby Men's 7s Player of the Year (2004–14)

Year	Nominees	Winners
2006	Stefan Basson	—
2008	Fabian Juries
2009	Renfred Dazel
2011	Cecil Afrika	Cecil Afrika
2014	Kyle Brown	—

World Rugby Men's 7s Player of the Year (2015–23)

Year	Nominees	Winners
2015	Werner Kok	Werner Kok
	Seabelo Senatla
2016	Seabelo Senatla (2)	Seabelo Senatla
2017	Rosko Specman	—

World Rugby Men's 7s Dream Team

Year	No.	Player
2024	1.	Selvyn Davids

External links

• Official website
• WorldRugby profile Archived 2 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine