After travelling for 34 hours‚ a depleted Blitzboks arrived bleary-eyed in Las Vegas with slightly lowered expectations for the fifth leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series at the weekend. The team flew from SA to London‚ where they had a nine-hour layover before an 11-hour flight to Vegas. They also go into the North American leg of the series without first choice six players due to injury and Super Rugby commitments. Record try-scorer Seabelo Senatla with forwards Kwagga Smith‚ Sikhumbuzo Notshe and Tim Agaba are back at their Super Rugby franchises, while Justin Geduld and Rosko Specman are injured. Ryan Oosthuizen‚ Selvyn Davids and Muller du Plessis will play in their first Las Vegas series. Considering the travel and player loss factors, coach Neil Powell is realistic about the challenge the team faces in the next 11 days. "I guess‚ under the circumstances, an acceptable goal for the next two weeks would be reaching the finals of both tournaments [in Las Vegas and Vancouver]‚" Po...
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