South Africa’s winger Kurt-Lee Arendse has revealed how Rugby 7s has helped him on his journey to becoming the player that he is today including winning the 2023 Rugby World Cup with the Springboks.
Arendse played in two 7s series campaigns and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games before transitioning to 15s.
He says playing sevens has been a huge stepping stone in his career.
Arendse says with only seven players on the field, there’s so much space out there and not being the weakest link and letting his team-mates down is what drives him.
He says playing sevens has helped him improve in all areas including defence, his tactical awareness, conditioning, and managing himself off-the-field.
He adds he found the transition from 7s to 15s pretty seamless and the pathway is well-trodden building him to work unbelievably hard for his team-mates.
The former Blitzbokke says he is still a huge sevens fan and says he was so happy the team won the Dubai 7s last week.
Arendse says he is hoping the South African 7s team can turn it on in Cape Town this weekend and he hopes they can pick up a gold medal at the Olympics as well.
Meanwhile, the pools for the Cape Town 7s this weekend are out with the Fiji Men’s side in pool B alongside Dubai 7s cup finalist Argentina, France and Spain. The Fijiana 7s side is in pool A with Dubai 7s Women’s winners Australia, Japan and Spain.
In Pool A, Dubai 7s winners South Africa will be up against Ireland, the USA and Great Britain while New Zealand heads Pool C alongside Samoa, Australia and Canada. In the Women’s category, New Zealand is in Pool B alongside Ireland Brazil and Great Britain while France is in Pool C with Canada, the USA and South Africa. The fixtures for Cape Town 7s are yet to be confirmed.
