When it comes to rugby stardom, few come close to South Africa’s former Blitzboks maestro Cecil Afrika. Named World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in 2011, Cecil Afrika always electrified the pitches he stepped onto with his sleek ball handling and wicked footwork. Apart from being named sevens player of the year, Afrika is also a Commonwealth gold medalist (2014) with the South Africa 7s team, Blitzboks.
What many rugby fans today may not recall is that Cecil Afrika played at the Safari 7s with the Blitzboks development side in 2008. This formed part of his early rugby sevens development and perhaps, that is why Kenya holds a special place in his heart.
“I love Kenya, this is my home away from home. This is where my rugby sevens career started and it will always be special to me,” – Cecil Afrika.
Born Cecil Sebastian Afrika, the former South Africa 7s Star made his official 7s debut at the Dubai 7s in 2009. Between then and 2020, when he officially called time on his decorated career, Afrika had made a total of 345 appearances, managing to score 1462 points, making him South Africa’s leading all-time point scorer in the Sevens Series.
Transition into coaching
Afrika played his last game for the Blitzboks at the Vancouver Sevens in March 2020 and has since transitioned seamlessly into coaching, holding several positions within the South Africa 7s Women’s team. In July 2023, he was named the South Africa 7s Women’s Assistant Coach before progressing to Technical Coach between 2023 -2024 and finally Head Coach in 2025.
Under his reign, the South Africans reclaimed the Africa 7s title in Nairobi in November last year, beating hosts Kenya Lionesses 22-0 in the final. Since then, the South Africa Women’s 7s team has gone on to win the HSBC SVNS 3 tournament in Dubai last month.
Coming into the HSBC SVNS 2 tournament, Afrika admits that his team was under a bit of pressure. “The pressure is always there to perform but I believe what has kept u grounded is the understanding of where we are and where we want to get to. We all know that we are not a well-oiled machine, at least not yet, there are parts we need to oil to make sure that we get to where we want to go,” said Cecil at the sidelines of the ongoing HSBC SVNS Tournament in Nairobi.
Afrika’s Blazeboks have so far managed two narrow wins and one loss at the ongoing HSBC SVNS 2. The wins came at the expense of Spain (14-12) and hosts Kenya (10-12) while the loss came in the hands of exciting South American side Brazil (12-0). On day two of the competition, the Blazeboks are set to play yet another South American side Argentina and Afrika is weary of the challenge.
“South American teams are special especially in the way they approach the game. They are very tough and play a lot of offloads like the Fijians. It will be very interesting for us, but we are really looking forward to this type of challenge tomorrow, “said Afrika.
Heading to this tournament, Cecil Afrika had to do without the services of Vianca Boer (injury) and Zintle Mpupha (provincial duty) who were key members of the squad that lifted the Africa 7s tournament in November. In their places Afrika named debutant Shannon-Lee Windvogel and Lerato Makua.
Afrika praised their smooth integration into the team especially the debutant Shannon-Lee Windvogel noting that despite the many mistakes is prone to prone to making at the tournament, she will come good with time.
“When we were preparing for Africa 7s Winvogel was coming back from nine months injury layoff so she could not make the team then, but we have had a few months since then to integrate her into the team. You can she is still very young, obviously she made a lot of mistakes, but this is the only way for her to learn, to expose her so that she can come back and perform,” Afrika commented.
Asked what he made of a fully packed Nyayo Stadium, Afrika had just one word to describe the atmosphere, “Electric!”
South Africa Women’s 7s team will be taking on Argentina and China on Day 2 of the HSBC SVNS 2 tournament.
By James Njenga
