BlitzBokke see bigger picture

With the start of the new season less than a month away, the focus of most teams remain on rugby's return to the Olympic Games after an absence of almost a century.

However, while most countries are working themselves into a frenzy, South Africa know there's a far more important task at hand - the 2014/15 International Rugby Board World Sevens Series.

The latest edition of the IRB World circuit, which gets underway on the Australian Gold Coast on October 11 and 12, serves as a qualifying series for the Olympics.

The top four finishers in the 2014/15 IRB Series automatically qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Not surprising then the BlitzBok captain Kyle Brown and his team have already put their Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning performance behind them.

They see the bigger picture, the importance of following up that with an even better performance on the IRB circuit between October this year and May next year.

Describing their performance in Glasgow in July as a "very special moment", Brown admitted they did not actually realise how big the Commonwealth Game was.

He pointed to running out against Scotland at Murrayfield in front of the biggest crowd he played in front and then winning in the Final against New Zealand as the highlights.

But he made it clear they can't afford to dwell on past glories for too long.

With Rio 2016 in the back of their minds, Brown said the 2014/15 IRB season is going to be "very important and a huge one for us".

"Obviously our goal is to finish first," he told rugby365, when asked about the IRB World Sevens Series.

"Rio, if we manage these processes properly, will take care of itself."

Having beaten arch-rivals in three of their four meetings in finals in the past year, including the Commonwealth Games Final, Brown felt said there are a number of reasons why they have managed to close the gap on the code's top team.

"It was a culmination of the season's efforts," he said of the Glasgow win.

"We saw it in a number of the finals [on the IRB Sevens series], where New Zealand gave their absolutely all, then the superior fitness of our team came through," he said of victories over the Kiwis in the finals on the South African and American legs, as well as in Glasgow.

"There was a word going around the camp for most of the weekend [at the Games], it was called desperation and that was what it is about: 'How desperately do you want it?'."

The BlitzBokke stepped up their preparation for the upcoming season in Stellenbosch this week, following a short break.

The Commonwealth Games gold medalists, South Africa, will face African rivals Kenya, Wales and American Samoa in the opening round of the Sevens World Series at Australia's Gold Coast on October 11 and 12.

By Jan de Koning

* Rugby union has been a men's medal sport at the modern Summer Olympic Games, being played at four of the first seven competitions. The sport debuted at the 1900 Paris games where the gold medal was won by the host nation. It was subsequently featured at the London games in 1908, the Antwerp games in 1920 and the Paris games in 1924. The United States is the most successful nation in Olympic rugby tournaments, having won the gold medal in both 1920 and 1924; France has the most medals, one gold (in 1900) and two silvers (in 1920 and 1924).

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