Can high-flying Blitzboks bounce back in Canada?

The Blitzboks head into this weekend's Canada Sevens as defending champions while they are also at the top of the current World Series standings, but they know they are only as good as their last game.

South Africa has dominated the circuit for months now, but last weekend's humbling at the quarter-final stage at the hands of Fiji and the subsequent, unexpected loss to Argentina leaves this team with a lot to think about suddenly.

"The number of penalties was a worry – we are more disciplined than that and have been for a while," head coach Neil Powell said.

That has prompted a chat to the match officials to help Powell get a clearer picture of where his side went wring heading into the Canada event. 

"We did chat to the officials to understand where we made those errors in order to rectify them," said Powell.

"It was a combination of frustration on our side and interpretation on theirs. We sought clarity and got that.

"The feedback to the players was that we need to give the referees a better picture of what we do. We know the rules it was just a reminder of what was wrong and what not. There should be no issues this weekend."

The Blitzboks’ three Pool C opponents are also familiar foes in Canada, Spain and Australia. 

Blitzboks’ pool schedule (SA time):

Saturday, 16 April:

20h15: vs Spain

23h26: vs Canada 

Sunday, 17 April:

03h33: vs Australia 

Springbok Sevens squad for Vancouver:

1. James Murphy - 6 tournaments; 20 matches, 10 points (2 tries)

2. Ryan Oosthuizen - 28 tournaments; 137 matches, 150 points (30 tries)

3. Impi Visser - 18 tournaments; 91 matches, 95 points (19 tries)

4. Zain Davids - 29 tournaments; 145 matches, 135 points (27 tries)

5. Christie Grobbelaar - 8 tournaments; 38 matches, 65 points (13 tries)

6. JC Pretorius -