Cape Town – He was one of the stand-out players for the SA Under-20s last year, but now Zain Davids is about to make his senior rugby bow – in sevens.
Livewire openside flank and No 8 Davids will make his debut for the Blitzboks after being included in the squad for the Wellington (January 28-29) and Sydney Sevens (February 4-5) tournaments.
He will replace former captain Kyle Brown, who hurt his knee at the Cape Town Sevens in December and will be out for six months. The other change sees Siviwe Soyizwapi coming in for Cecil Afrika, who picked up a knee injury in training this week.
But World Sevens Player of the Year Seabelo Senatla has overcome the calf problem that saw him sit out the Cape Town final to be able to play in his last two Blitzboks events before joining the Stormers for Super Rugby.
The 19-year-old Davids was introduced to the sevens set-up late last year, and played for the SA Academy side under coach Paul Delport in Dubai, where they won an invitational tournament.
Now he is ready to make the step up to the full Blitzbok side, having had to be content with junior rugby at the WP Under-19s last year. Davids is a man for the big stage, having been one of the top performers for the SA Under-20 side alongside Curwin Bosch in the World Cup in Manchester, where they were knocked out in the semi-finals and ended fourth.
He didn’t feature for the WP Currie Cup team last year, and perhaps the time spent in sevens will help to sharpen his passing and tackling skills once he returns to 15-man rugby. But Davids is a devastating runner with ball-in-hand, and could be a force in the shorter format, where there is more room to manoeuvre.
“We have lost over 100 tournaments worth of experience with Kyle and Cecil out of action,” Blitzbok coach Neil Powell said.
“That said, we always knew that we needed to bring new players into the system, and Zain was earmarked as one of them. He has shown a good appetite for sevens and will now be tested at the highest level.
“Shakes (Soyizwapi) played for us last year and will be keen to establish himself in the side, especially as Seabelo Senatla will be moving to 15s. He did very well in the warm-up tournament in Namibia late last year, and I am pleased to have him in the playing squad.”
The Blitzboks have been drawn in Pool B for the Wellington Sevens at the Westpac Stadium, where they will face Japan, Australia and Olympic champions Fiji on day one.
Blitzbok Squad
Chris Dry, Philip Snyman (captain), Dylan Sage, Kwagga Smith, Werner Kok, Zain Davids, Branco du Preez, Rosko Specman, Justin Geduld, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Ruhan Nel, Seabelo Senatla.
Reserve: Sandile Ngcobo.