South Africa have only once won the Cape Town leg of the World Rugby sevens series, but Ryan Oosthuizen said the Blitzboks are determined to change that this week.

Home hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for the Blitzboks since 1999 – the series was first hosted in the Republic at the Danie Craven Stadium, before moving on to Outeniqua Park, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and finally settling at Cape Town Stadium.

The hosts have only won four home tournaments, including the Cape Town leg of the 2015-16 series.

With the 2024 Dubai SVNS title in the bag, the Blitzboks will look to make it back-to-back wins as the Mother City hosts the second tournament of the 2023-24 series. The hosts have been drawn in a favourable Pool A, and kick things off against Great Britain on Saturday at 10:50am before clashes with the USA (2.18pm) and Ireland (7.40pm).

“We all know that the hoodoo is there – we haven’t won here since 2015, with just a whole lot of seconds and thirds,” Oosthuizen was quoted by IOL Sport.

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“It’s for us to stick to our principles and what worked for us in Dubai. We got good confidence from that and the team spirit is back. We must take that into the first game and take it from there.

“The whole system changed as it’s now just 12 teams and three pools, so there are no easy games any more. We have a lot of fans who are depending on us to win. The first game is our sole focus at the moment.”

He added: “We got that Blitzbok gees back again, and we’ve been working on our culture, and what it means to play for the Springbok Sevens and what the jersey means to us.

“We are really happy with the win, but we have to start from zero again, and Cape Town is a tournament that we haven’t won [in a while] – and it’s something that we are eyeing.

“The pressure is lekker and we enjoy it, and hopefully it can count in our favour this weekend.”

Photo: @Blitzboks/Twitter