Soyizwapi to lead Blitzboks at Commonwealth Games

Siviwe Soyizwapi has been named captain of the South African men's sevens rugby team for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The Blitzboks skipper and Zain Davids are the only squad members who will make their second appearance at the Commonwealth Games.

Springbok Sevens head coach Neil Powell, who will return to the Games as coach for a third time, named the duo in a squad consisting exclusively of contracted Blitzboks.

"I really think there is a good balance between experience and youth in the squad, with a number of younger players who have done well and put up their hands in the last two seasons who got their reward," Powell said in a statement.

"We find that the younger guys bring a very nice energy to this team and if we channel that well and in the right direction, it will benefit the team."

Powell said the team prepared well over the past three weeks.

"We looked at areas in our game where we came up short in the last four World Series tournaments we played and focussed on those to improve our effort overall," he said.

"We said that those were the areas we need to be better in order to be successful. From a physical perspective, I believe the guys also worked hard and made a step-up to add to the resilience and mental toughness in the team. We had a very tough week last week, but the guys came through that very well."

The Blitzboks will tackle Malaysia, Tonga and Scotland in pool play in Birmingham. They start their campaign against Malaysia and then face Tonga on the opening day (Friday, 29 July), before concluding their pool fixtures against Scotland on Saturday, 30 July.

South Africa won gold in Glasgow in 2014, shortly after Powell took over as coach, but missed out on a podium finish at the next Games in Gold