Nortje checks in for first Blitzboks appearance of the season in Hong Kong

Quewin Nortje will make his return for HSBC SVNS Series champions South Africa in Hong Kong for the first leg of the HSBC SVNS World Championship.

Nortje has watched on all season with persistent injuries as Philip Snyman’s team claimed the Series crown after six tournaments. The 23-year-old has not played in a tournament since the World Championship tournament in Los Angeles last term.

Now fit again, Nortje is ready to make an impact in a squad that shows the scars of their success in North America. Casualties include Christie Grobbelaar, Dewald Human and Gino Cupido.

Zain Davids and Jayden Nell complete the squad changes for Hong Kong. In total there are a total of 38 combined visits to the much-heralded rugby sevens event.

Philip Snyman, Springboks Men’s Sevens head coach, said: “We started over; this is a new challenge and we have some players coming back, so we had to align first and the best way to do that is to start at the basics.

“We worked hard in training, pushed each other very hard and reminded ourselves of our objectives at the start of this campaign. Doing well in Hong Kong was one of them, so we know what we are training for.

“Nothing has changed from our competitive excellence mindset in camp, so we will again travel with a quiet determination to build this team into one of the best in the world.

“Everyone is working towards that goal, whether he is selected for a particular trip or not. Someone like Quewin worked very hard over a couple of months in that role and now will be ready to contribute as we know he can.”

South Africa have been named in Pool A with Argentina, Spain and Uruguay.

Springboks Men’s Sevens squad for Hong Kong

2 Ryan Oosthuizen
3 Impi Visser (C)
4 Zain Davids
7 Ronald Brown
8 Selvyn Davids
11 Siviwe Soyizwapi
12 Shilton van Wyk
14 Quewin Nortje
15 Donavan Don
16 Sebastiaan Jobb
19 David Brits
24 Tristan Leyds
31 Jayden Nell