Dubai Sevens: South Africa not feeling pressure as they go for five in a row

Arriving in Dubai as a captain of an HSBC Svns team has been a precarious business over the past two years. Really, it should come with hazard pay.

The job spec must read something like: leadership skills and a talent for rugby preferable; a head for heights essential.

Ahead of the 2022 Emirates Dubai Sevens, the promotional photoshoot took them to the top of The View on Palm Jumeirah.

This week they actually had to be harnessed to a roof around 400ft up in the air. At least the views were decent.

The stunt took place at One Za’abeel, with the captains standing atop The Link. The 741ft-wide structure is the longest sky cantilevered building in the world.

Happily for Selvyn Davids, the South Africa captain, he is used to heights. After all, his team have been looking down on the rest of Dubai for years.

The Blitz Boks will be going for a fifth Dubai title in a row this weekend. Since 2015, they have only failed to win the series-starting event in the UAE once.

They are by far the most successful side in Dubai Sevens history, having played in 11 finals, and only lost one.

The tournament is an outlier as they have not been quite so dominant on the world series in its entirety. They have won the series in three of the past seven years. Last season they finished a lowly seventh.

“I think it might be because everyone is fit at this specific moment,” Selvyn Davids, their captain, said of the potential reason for their ownership of the Emirates International Trophy.

“It is the first tournament of the season, and what also helps us is the heat. It is summer in South Africa at the moment and Stellenbosch [where SA sevens are based] is extremely hot, so that might play a role in helping us be successful.”

Davids does not go along