Snyman Believes Mental Focus Will Be Key

They know that they are physically up for the challenge to deliver the best season in the history of the Springbok Sevens, which is why Blitzbok Philip Snyman believes the key to their approach for the second of three HSBC SVNS World Championship events, this weekend at Estadio Jose Zorrilla in Valladolid, will be mental.

The Blitzboks have two Pool A encounters on Friday, against Great Britain and Kenya, and on Saturday they face Australia.  

“There is no doubt that we will need our best performance of the season to be successful here this weekend,” said Snyman.

“We will need to play as a team where every individual delivers his best effort. We have identified certain focus points and how to make them smaller by zooming into them. One of those is to focus on ourselves and what we need to do, and not the opponents as such.”

They are aware of the bigger picture – being in a good position to win both the HSBC SVNS Series and the World Championship – but that is not where the focus has been in their preparations back home, or this week in sunny Valladolid.

“We have a good group of players here and all had done well during the season – from the most experienced players to the newer ones we brought into our squad this season – and we prepared well,” said Snyman.

“We know what we are capable of, but this will still require a fresh start for this tournament and for that matter, we do not look past the opening match against Great Britain.”

The Blitzbok coach was happy with their only training session of the week on Tuesday and said there is good energy and synergy in the squad: “We just needed to get those flights out of the systems and that worked, so we are ready. The players are in a good space as well, so we are looking forward to the weekend, but from a match perspective, it all starts against Great Britain.”

South Africa’s Pool A fixtures (SA times, all matches live on SuperSport):

Friday 29 May

12h34: Great Britain

17h08: Kenya

Saturday, 30 May

13h23: Australia

Head-to-Head:

Great Britain: Played 16, won 11. Average score 21-12. Last match: Vancouver 2026 – Won 21-5.

Kenya: Played 72, won 63. Average score 26-10. Last match: Hong Kong 2026 quarter-final – Won 26-22.

Australia: Played 116, won 75. Average score: 17-13. Last match: New York 2026 – Lost 12-19.

Selected Blitzbok stats for season:

Leading points scorers:

110 Shilton van Wyk

106 Tristan Leyds

75 Ronald Brown

72 Ricardo Duarttee

65 Sebastiaan Jobb

Leading try scorers:

22 Shilton van Wyk

14 Tristan Leyds

13 Sebastiaan Jobb

12 Donavan Don

10 Selvyn Davids, Ryan Oosthuizen

Springbok Sevens squad (with HSBC SVNS stats):

#2 Ryan Oosthuizen – 63 tournaments, 285 points (57 tries)

#3 Impi Visser (captain) – 51 tournaments, 240 points (48 tries)

#4 Zain Davids – 58 tournaments, 255 points (51 tries)

#5 Ricardo Duarttee – 23 tournaments, 372 points (25 tries, 121 conversions, 1 penalty goal)

#8 Selvyn Davids – 47 tournaments, 793 points (107 tries, 129 conversions, 1 penalty goal)

#10 Dewald Human – 33 tournaments, 330 points (30 tries, 90 conversions)

#11 Siviwe Soyizwapi – 65 tournaments, 805 points (161 tries)

#12 Shilton van Wyk – 33 tournaments, 370 points (74 tries)

#14 Quewin Nortje – 13 tournaments, 165 points (33 tries)

#16 Sebastiaan Jobb – 9 tournaments, 80 points (16 tries)

#24 Tristan Leyds – 18 tournaments, 236 points (30 tries, 43 conversions)

#31 Jayden Nell – 2 tournaments, 0 points

#35 Gino Cupido – 3 tournaments, 30 points (6 tries)