That is the view of team captain, Nadine Roos, as the South African side contest HSBC SVNS 3 at the Sevens Stadium on Saturday and Sunday, a tournament where success will open more doors for the SA women.<\/p>\n
The two finalists in Dubai on Sunday will qualify for HSBC SVNS 2, to be played over three tournaments later in the season, and Roos said they are not going to shy away from this challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest pressure is, of course, qualifying for the world series,\u201d said Roos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not only important for sustaining the current sevens programme, but also for shaping the future of the programme in South Africa. It\u2019s about more than just qualifying \u2013 it\u2019s about building a structure that ensures long-term success.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa face Mexico, Czechia, and Thailand in Pool A on Saturday, while Argentina, Colombia, Poland and Samoa will contest Pool B.<\/p>\n
Roos said they are well prepared: \u201cLooking at the squad, it is similar to the one that competed in the Africa Cup, where we went undefeated in a must-win environment. We are aware of the pressure we faced during that tournament, so we are prepared to absorb whatever pressure comes our way this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experienced playmaker feels that a good start will kick them off in the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a team that flow well; we know exactly what is expected of us and we have a job to execute,\u201d said Roos.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a group, we have set our goals, and the ultimate objective is to win the tournament. However, we are very process-driven, so our immediate focus is on the opening match against Mexico. We want to set a high standard in that first game.\u201d<\/p>\n
They respect all their opponents but must focus on Mexico first, she said: \u201cFrom there, our focus will shift to each subsequent match. We intend to treat every game as a final because we understand the stakes and what is required to reach the championship match.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sevens will not be unfamiliar to the South Africans, with all of the players having participated in tournaments at the United Arab Emirates venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have experience of either playing there during the world series or playing in the invitational tournaments that run alongside it, so we\u2019re very familiar with the surfaces there, the pitch set-ups and the weather,\u201d said Roos.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn added bonus for us is the fact that there\u2019s a lot of South Africans in that region, so hopefully they will come out and support the team and the ladies again. That will be a huge boost for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That is the view of team captain, Nadine Roos, as the South African side contest HSBC SVNS 3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-412220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}