South Africa national rugby sevens team

South Africa

Nickname(s)	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 competes in the

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

.

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

.

At the end of 1999, the first

(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	2	1
Total	0 Titles	2/2	12	9	3	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[1]	3rd (Bronze)
2013 Cali[2]	1st (Gold)

World Rugby Sevens Series

Series wins

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

World Series wins

Season	Points	Runner-up	Tournament wins
2008–09	132	Fiji (102)	3
2016–17	192	England (164)	5
2017–18	182	Fiji (180)	2
2020–21	40	Great Britain (34)	2

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

Current season

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 (age 26)	42	Unattached
Christie Grobbelaar	Forward	(2000-05-25) 25 May 2000 (age 23)	18	Unattached
Kat Letebele	Forward	(2003-11-18) 18 November 2003 (age 20)	2	Unattached
Masande Mtshali	Forward	(2003-07-10) 10 July 2003 (age 20)	7	Unattached
Ryan Oosthuizen	Forward	(1995-05-22) 22 May 1995 (age 28)	45	Unattached
Impi Visser	Forward	(1995-05-30) 30 May 1995 (age 28)	34	Unattached
Ronald Brown	Back	(1995-09-02) 2 September 1995 (age 28)	15	Unattached
Selvyn Davids (c)	Back	(1994-03-26) 26 March 1994 (age 30)	31	Unattached
Justin Geduld	Back	(1993-10-01) 1 October 1993 (age 30)	56	Unattached
Dewald Human	Back	(1995-05-19) 19 May 1995 (age 28)	24	Unattached
Quewin Nortje	Back	(2003-01-14) 14 January 2003 (age 21)	2	Blue Bulls
Rosko Specman	Back	(1989-04-28) 28 April 1989 (age 34)	32	Griquas
Shilton van Wyk	Back	(1999-12-22) 22 December 1999 (age 24)	15	Unattached

Records and statistics

Previous squads

The previous South African Sevens squads are as follows: