Captains for the Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens tournament: Ed Jenkins, Osea Kolinisau, DJ Forbes & Kyle Brown
After climbing into the top four after two rounds of the HSBC Sevens World Series, Australia and New Zealand know it’s far too early to rest on their laurels with Olympic qualification also up for grabs this season.
As the 16 captains assemble for the Cell C Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens in Port Elizabeth, Australian skipper Ed Jenkins and his New Zealand counterpart DJ Forbes reflect on their respective team’s elevation to the all-important top four after the first two rounds of the HSBC Sevens World Series.
Both captains know they are a step closer to a berth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games if they can maintain their table-topping status this weekend but are keen to keep a lid on the Olympic hype while focussing on the here and now.
Standings:
| Team | PTS | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fiji | 39 |
| 2 | South Africa | 37 |
| 3 | Australia | 29 |
| 4 | New Zealand | 28 |
| 5 | Samoa | 27 |
“We had a pretty shaky start to our own tournament on the Gold Coast but we’ve trained really hard for the last eight weeks and set a goal to try and win the next two tournaments,” Jenkins said.
Geraint John’s charges came up a win short of that goal at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens, and although pleased to reach the Cup final, Jenkins was left ruing his sides missed opportunities.
“A forward pass from Cameron Clark, who usually doesn’t make those mistakes, Pama Fou’s intercept chance, Sam Myers got held up over the line, there was a few turning points in the game but you have got to take those opportunities when you get them.”
After getting the early jump on his opponents for one of four Olympic qualifying spots, Jenkins is not getting too carried away just yet.
Huge Weekend in South Africa:
“There’s a long way to go. We’ve only played two tournaments in the season and it’s a long season. Hopefully we can have another good tournament this weekend and stay in the top four.
“Just looking at the points table it is so close between the top six or so sides, there’s not many points splitting them so this weekend is going to be huge for us.”
Meanwhile, the other new entrant in the top four is New Zealand, despite a 28-0 loss to eventual tournament winners South Africa in the Cup quarter-finals in Dubai.
“We played four flawless games then, in the one that counted, we were off the pace. South Africa really got the snowball going and as hard as we tried we just couldn’t get anything going,” Forbes said.
After scoring 120 points and maintaining a clean slate in defence during their pool games, the All Blacks Sevens easily accounted for England in the quarter-final 29-7 before falling to the powerful Blitzboks.
“You never go out to play like that but in saying that we still got a lot of positives. We were playing some good footy and putting sides under pressure we just didn’t get the opportunity. South Africa stuck to their guns and really put us to the sword.”
While Forbes says it’s easy to get caught up thinking about the bigger picture in an Olympic qualifying year, it’s important to keep to the task at hand.
“If we get the process right, Olympic qualification will take care of itself. All we are focussed on here is our pool games and the South African tournament.”