Siviwe Soyizwapi: 'We messed up - we need to fix that'

The only thing on the mind of Blitzbok captain Siviwe Soyizwapi is redemption.

Last weekend in Singapore he and his South Africa teammates finished fourth overall on the third stop of the 2025/26 HSBC SVNS Series season.

Due to play in his 62nd tournament this weekend in Perth, the 33-year-old wants his side to recapture the form that saw them romp home to victory in Cape Town two months ago.

“It was a tough weekend in Singapore, so coming here and out to the local beach for the captains’ photo does perk you up, especially on a beautiful day such as today,” Soyizwapi said.

“We know how much potential we have as a group, so making silly errors is frustrating. We don’t mind the odd bad call that comes our way, that will happen but dropping a ball or making a bad pass or missing a tackle, those things are on us and no one else can be blamed for that.”

This weekend the Blitzboks have been drawn in Pool A with Fiji, Australia and Spain. Their Pacific Island and European opponents are familiar foes from Singapore.

Against Spain, South Africa were 21-14 winners in the pool stages and lost out to Fiji in extra time.

“The teams know each other by now and tactically each one will be well aware of what the others bring to the game,” he said.

“We still have some things up our sleeve, but so will the other teams, so we need to be strategic and better in our execution in order to be successful.”

There is also hope that last week’s debutant, Luan Giliomee, will feel more comfortable competing on sevens’ biggest stage. As well as a harsh review hitting home for the players.

On their day off the side will get a chance to switch off ahead of the tournament starting on Saturday at HBF Park.

“We will have a day off tomorrow and that down time will come in handy as we could go sightseeing a bit, but the mindset is pretty much on fixing what went wrong last time around,” Soyizwapi said. “We messed up, so we need to fix that ourselves.”