Jayden Nell targets Bordeaux title to cap breakthrough Blitzboks season

Jayden Nell is one match into what could be a defining weekend for his fledgling Blitzboks career, with South Africa opening their HSBC SVNS Championship campaign against Great Britain in Bordeaux on Friday night, chasing a title on French soil for the first time since 2018.

The 22-year-old has featured for the Blitzboks in every tournament since making his World Series debut in New York, quickly establishing himself as part of an exciting generation of young South African sevens players. His debut season has not been without its challenges — Nell overcame multiple injuries and two appearances for the Springbok Sevens ‘A’ side in the Rugby Africa Sevens Cup in Mauritius before earning his senior breakthrough.

The New York debut proved worth the wait. Nell scored his first World Series try against Spain in the quarter-finals, helping the Blitzboks to a 14-12 victory. In characteristic fashion, he only realised the significance of the moment after the fact. “Only when we watched the review, I realised, along with most of the other guys, that it was my first try,” Nell said. “So I asked them to please celebrate with me whenever I score my second.”

South Africa arrive in Bordeaux as regular-season premiers but with a point to prove after finishing runners-up in Valladolid, where Australia handed them their only two pool-stage losses of the weekend before beating them again in the final. The Blitzboks will not face Australia in the pool stages this time, but still face stiff tests from Great Britain, Kenya, and Fiji before any potential knockout meeting.

The squad is largely unchanged from Valladolid, with the one enforced alteration being Donavan Don coming in to replace Dewald Human, who suffered a knee injury in Spain.

Nell is clear-eyed about what is required. “We know what to do and it all boils down to how we play together as a team,” he said on Wednesday. “We have seen this year that if the guys do that, we are a tough team to beat. We know what we have to do, it is just a matter of going out there and do it.”

Also in action on Friday are the Blazeboks — South Africa’s second side — who face Argentina, France, and New Zealand in Pool A as they bid to secure a place in the World Series next season.