In sevens rugby a player has to represent his country in 35 tournaments to be considered at fully-fledged Springbok.

The only other players in the squad who have reached the milestone are the captain Philip Snyman, Chris Dry, Kyle Brown and Cecil Afrika.

On top of this feat, Senatla, is just 4 tries away from 200 tries on the HSBC Sevens Worlds Series, and he is also sure to cross that barrier in Cape Town.

Despite topping the rating during last week’s Dubai Sevens, Senatla, says that he was rusty.

“I was really rusty in the beginning due to the fact that I haven’t actually played sevens rugby for quite a bit. I have to still get into the little habits that you need to get used to.

“As you progress you keep on learning.

“This game keeps on evolving and you’ve just got to keep on learning as so go along.

“You never know, you can never get too used to sevens, so you’ve just got to keep on learning.”

South Africa face Russia at 12:49 on Saturday in their opening game of the Cape Town Sevens. The Blitzboks face France and 16:10 in their second pool game before wrapping up the pool stages against Kenya at 19:56.

Morgan Piek OFM Sport