Treu picks teenager Jordaan for Wellington and Las Vegas

Paul Treu, the Springbok Sevens coach, has made four changes to his squad for the next two HSBC Sevens World Series tournaments in Wellington and Las Vegas.

Former SA Schools star Paul Jordaan is set to make his Springbok Sevens debut after he was selected in place of Mark Richards. Renfred Dazel replaces the injured Cecil Afrika.

The two other changes see Chris Dry and Lubabalo Mtembu coming into the squad in place of Jacques Engelbrecht and Sibusiso Sithole (knee injury). Jordaan is one of five promising schoolboy players signed last year by Treu in a bid to inject some new blood into his national squad.

Afrika, the team’s main attacking weapon, was in great form during the first two tournaments in Dubai and George. He suffered a broken jaw during the Plate semi-final clash against Wales at Outeniqua Park and will not be fit for Wellington and Las Vegas.

Afrika and Sithole should return to full fitness in time for the Hong Kong Sevens in March.

Despite his injury, Afrika is currently the leading World Series point scorer. He has scored an impressive 127 points to date and is also the leading try scorer with 17.

After the first two events in Dubai and South Africa, England leads the HSBC Sevens World Series with 44 points, New Zealand are second (40), Samoa third (36) and they are followed by Fiji (32) and South Africa (24).

The third leg of the World Series will be played in Wellington, New Zealand on February 4-5 and this will be followed by the Las Vegas event a week later.

Treu will put his team though their training paces from 10am tomorrow at the Athlone Stadium, in what will be a first visit for the team to this historic Cape Flats sports venue. The team leaves for Wellington on Friday and their departure time from the Cape Town International Airport is 12h55.

The Springbok Sevens squad to Wellington and Las Vegas:

Boom Prinsloo, Kyle Brown (captain), Frankie Horne, Chris Dry, Lubabalo Mtembu, Paul Delport, Branco du Preez, Renfred Dazel, Pieter Engelbrecht, Bernado Botha, Steven Hunt, Paul Jordaan.