The first @lantic provincial u18 and u13 sevens takes place on 6 and 7 October at Konka near Rustenburg in the North West province. Twenty u18 provincial teams and 16 provincial u13 teams will participate in the tournament.

 

A South African u18 sevens team will be selected at the conclusion of the tournament at Konka. This team will represent South Africa at the Youth Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympic Games. @lantic has been involved with schools sevens rugby in South Africa during the past five years.

 

"This is the first time that such an event will be held and is truly a breakthrough for schools rugby in South Africa. The tournament could be better than the Coca-Cola Craven Week. We are very excited about the tournament," said Lindsay Mould, chairman of the South African Schools’ Rugby Association.

 

"The provincial tournament will certainly make a contribution to the national sevens team. We've been battling a long time to get a feeder system in place for our national team. It has always been a problem for us to see the players in the 15-man code and then hope the skills that we see in them will be transferred successfully to the sevens circuit. The tournament will help create a culture of sevens and create an opportunity for us to get to see the skills of the best sevens players at schools level in the shorter version of the game. All this brings great value to sevens in South Africa," said Paul Treu, coach of the Springboks Sevens team.

 

The @lantic Sevens series has contributed Hoffman Maritz and Branco du Preez to the national team. Both players were identified at the Bloemfontein leg of the series at Jim Fouché. Other players like Gerhard van den Heever (Bulls), Jacques Erasmus (Lions) and Danie Poolman (Western Province) also honed their skills in the @lantic Sevens series.

 

"The provincial tournament is an excellent result of the @lantic Sevens series which was held over the past four years. The players which are overlooked for selection for the Coca-Cola Craven Week, can now have the opportunity to compete at provincial level. The tournament will only further strengthen the status of sevens rugby in South Africa," said tournament promoter Willem Strauss.

 

Players who participate at this year's tournament could possibly represent the national Sevens team at the Olympic Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. Treu identified Tshotsho Mbovane, Paul Jordaan, Craig Barry and William Small-Smith during last year’s Coca-Cola Craven Week and signed national sevens contracts with them, with the Olympic Games in mind. The @lantic provincial sevens tournament this year could already add another couple of names of players in the mix for selection for Rio de Janeiro.

 

"We have been involved with sevens for the past five years through the @lantic Sevens series. We looked at rugby and saw a gap in schools’ sevens and decided to make an investment. I think the provincial tournament is a culmination of all our efforts to promote the game. I think we have always worked to establish a recognized provincial tournament and a national team selected after the tournament. This tournament is to acknowledge everyone's hard work at all the tournaments during the past five years," said Dederick Venter, Marketing Director of @lantic.