- Tournament hosts South Africa have had to do things differently in preparing for the Rugby Sevens World Cup, which begins in Cape Town this weekend.
- The Blitzboks have late starts to the tournament and have had to tailor their training to suit that difference.
- Should the Blitzboks win their first game on Friday, their next game will be on Saturday at 22:33.
The Springbok Sevens, like all teams participating at the Rugby Sevens World Cup will have to contend with the format that not only plunges teams into a knock-out game from the word go, but also late kick-offs.
Already seeded in the round of 16, the Blitzboks will only get their campaign going after 19:00 on day 1 of the tournament. Should they win that game (against Germany or Chile), then their game on day 2 will only kick-off at 22:33.
It's one of those scenarios all teams will have to contend with as 40 participating teams will take turns on the Cape Town Stadium turf in a bid for the ultimate prize: a shot at the championship final and an opportunity to be crowned Sevens champions.
The Blitzboks have devised plans to mitigate the time in between, starting with how they have been training in the lead-up to the weekend.
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For the hosts of the weekend, it will also be about righting their wrongs from previous tournaments, including an unfamiliar finish to the LA Sevens Series (they finished 13th overall, their lowest finish under Neil Powell since he took charge of the team a decade ago).
Blitzboks assistant coach Renfred Dazel held court with the media on Tuesday and let us in on preparations and how they plan on working around the schedule.
"The format is a challenge because we have one game on Friday evening and then [if we win] we play again on Saturday night, but we prepared well and have done our analysis on Germany and Chile. Chile will be more physical and Germany will look to spread the ball around," said Dazel.
He added: "We have a lot of guys who haven’t played in the World Cup and we will have to calm them down for the weekend to ensure their performance."
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The tournament's first game gets underway at 08:45 on Friday. The Springbok Women's Sevens kick off their campaign against France at 18:35 in Friday's evening session.
"We want to be accurate in what we do and [play] the brand we've stood for over the last few years; our attack will need to be accurate; our defence will need to be accurate.
"We’ll look to control the game via defence because it’s a phase that gives you momentum."
Turning to how they've done business unusual, Dazel said: "We started the week differently to a normal week; we had a gym session on Sunday; we had a session yesterday evening and today [Tuesday] we have a double session where we would normally have singles only."
Tickets are still available for all three days. Prices start at R150 (Friday), R750 (Saturday) and R475 (Sunday) and are available exclusively from Ticketmaster.