There was no place for Bryan Habana in the Springbok Sevens team for the Rio Olympic Games announced by SASCOC, but his omission shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. He was always a long shot, after playing just four games in the Las Vegas and Vancouver tournaments of the past World Sevens Series. He then picked up a hamstring injury which ruled him out of the Paris and London tournaments, leaving coach Neil Powell with precious little on which to judge him. A number of other players who played in the World Series were also left out of the Rio squad, including Rayno Benjamin, Ryan Kankowski, Stephan Dippenaar and Branco du Preez. – David O’Sullivan
From Sport24
Cape Town – The Springbok Sevens squad for the Rio Olympic Games was announced on Thursday.
Coach Neil Powell announced a 12-man squad which will be led by regular skipper Kyle Brown.
Regular fifteen-a-side players Juan de Jongh and Cheslin Kolbe were included, but there were no spots for Springboks Bryan Habana and Francois Hougaard, who both featured on the sevens circuit this past season.
Congratulations to Kyle Brown and our Sevens boys who will be going to Rio. Full team here: https://t.co/OPFXcXFh9D pic.twitter.com/XrvGwAKRfw
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) July 14, 2016
Hougaard, though, will be a travelling substitute, along with Chris Dry.
The Blitzboks are seeded second for the Olympic Sevens rugby competition, set to run from August 6-11.
They will contend Group B at the tournament, which consists of 12 teams across three pools.
Each team plays the three other nations in their pool over the first three match sessions with three points for a win, two for a draw and one for a loss.
The best eight teams will then proceed to the first round of knock-out matches, the quarter finals.
Those will be the three teams who top their pool, along with the three teams placed second in each pool and also the two best third-placed teams, based on competition points and then points difference.
Springbok Sevens Olympic squad:
Cecil Afrika, Tim Agaba, Kyle Brown, Juan de Jongh, Justin Geduld, Werner Kok, Cheslin Kolbe, Dylan Sage, Seabelo Senatla, Kwagga Smith, Philip Snyman, Rosko Specman
The draw for the quarter-finals will then be determined as follows:
QF 1 – Winner Pool A v 2nd best 3rd place
QF 2 – Winner Pool B v best 3rd place
QF 3 – Winner Pool C v Runner Up Pool A
QF 4 – Runner Up Pool B v Runner Up Pool C
The draw for the semi-finals will be determined as follows:
SF 1 – Winner QF1 v Winner QF4
SF 2 – Winner QF2 v Winner QF3
Rio Olympics Sevens seedings:
- Fiji
- South Africa
- New Zealand
- Great Britain
Rio Olympics Sevens pools:
Pool A – Fiji, USA, Argentina, Brazil
Pool B – South Africa, Australia, France, Spain
Pool C – New Zealand, Great Britain, Kenya, Japan
It is the first time in 92 years that rugby will form part of the Olympics.
The current gold medal holders are the United States. – Sport 24
Source: http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Sevens/habana-overlooked-for-olympic-squad-20160714
