Dazel, who will take charge of the squad for their remaining two tournaments of 2022 – in Dubai and Cape Town in December – had a first look at the wider training group for the national team, with this camp excluding six players that played at both the Rugby World Cup Sevens in September and the Rugby World Cup in October.

“I have to say, I was impressed by the games today,” said Dazel. “Some players did not show me much in training and then stepped up today when it mattered, and that was good to see.

“There are certain elements in sevens that one can coach and others that are being driven from inside the players themselves, such as work ethic and staying in the fight, and there were enough of both to make me happy. We only had a week and to then play and do well was a pleasing aspect of the camp.”

Dazel will announce a group of 17 players later in this month to come to Stellenbosch to prepare for the Dubai tournament, and he made it clear that this camp was more of a developmental nature.

“We needed to see where the new players are, and we had to expose them to this high performance environment at SAS,” he said.

“I believe the exposure they got there will benefit them going forward and I have no doubt some of these players can make a career out of the game.

“Some of them had a proper week of exercise, training, doing gym, eating healthy and being around professional athletes for the first time in their lives. We have seen the immediate benefits of that and it will be good to have more camps like these.” 

The two teams posed for a picture together after the games.

The South Africans won the first match against Belgium by 20-12, but the Europeans won the second clash by 24-21.

“Hopefully the players will now realise that you cannot just show up and expect the game to come to you, like some of them did in that first half of the second game. They will be better after seeing that sevens is a unique game where you get punished for not giving your all,” Dazel explained.