South Africa are brimming with confidence and energy ahead of their opening clash against New Zealand in the Canadian leg of World Rugby’s Sevens Series on Friday evening. Aside from a 36-hour trip from Cape Town to Vancouver, coach Philip Snyman says all the other preparations were spot on before the team’s first game later tonight. The Blitz Boks are fourth in the Series standings after three events, but just four points behind Fiji, Argentina and Spain.

The Blitzboks need to hit the ground running in Canada due to the strength of the group they are playing in. The opening game against New Zealand will be followed by a match against Ireland and the final group match against Australia on Saturday. Snyman says they have plans for all three teams and will take each game as it comes.

“Our first focus is New Zealand in a very tough pool and that first game will be crucial to lay a solid foundation and if we can man up against them and take them on physically in the first few minutes and starve them from ball possession and control the ball and then our playmakers will do the job of finishing the game,”

Snyman is also looking for more consistency from his team.

“We have certain standards in our team and we are in an upward curve and we need to make it count this weekend but we are not going to focus on the overall log even though we know we are 4th on the log we want to make sure that we focus on our performance from the first game and to play six games to the best of our ability and do what we planned and the biggest thing for us this weekend is attitude and  effort. Mistakes you can fix but if there’s no attitude and effort, then you are in a difficult place,”

Meanwhile on home soil, the Bulls and Lions tackle each other in a crucial United Rugby Championship encounter in Pretoria on Saturday.

The Lions beat the Stormers last weekend and desperately need another victory to boost their play-off chances in the competition, while the Bulls want to cement their own place in the top 4 after losing to the Sharks earlier.