Hosts Dallen Stanford & Robin MacDowell are joined by legend Siviwe ‘Shakes’ Soyizwapi for #RugbyHive Episode 31.

Soyizwapi is the South African 7s (known as the Blitzboks) Captain, who has represented his country on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series since 2016, winning the prestigious Series title in 2017, 2018, 2021 & 2025. He captained South Africa to a Gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, with the Blitzboks defeating Fiji 31-7. At the time of this recording, Shakes has scored over 130 tries on the Series, the 4th highest try scorer in history for the Rainbow Nation, behind Fabian Juries (179), Cecil Afrika (179) and Seabelo Senatla (230).

In this episode we talk about Soyizwapi’s family, his time in the Eastern Cape at Dale College, and rising in the rugby ranks through the Kings, Stormers and eventually the successful Blitzbok 7s side. We talk about hosting the recent Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town, and Head Coach Neil Powell’s final event after 15 years inside the South African 7s setup.

Soyizwapi reveals his South African 7s Dream Team, plus the best opponents he has ever faced, and cracks us up with some hilarious pranks on tour!

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