The Tuks men's sevens rugby team will undoubtedly rely on its captain, Dewald Naude, to do his "magic" from Saturday when they compete in the USSA Tournament in Margate. 

Scoring tries for Tuks at vital moments seems to be something the winger, Naude, relishes. Early this season in the Varsity Final against Maties he dotted down twice. During last year's Varsity Sevens Tournament he scored six tries.

It is not pure speed that makes him so efficient. Naude is blessed with an uncanny ability to spot gaps in any opposition's defence. To top it all, he is also able to wriggle out tackles with seemingly ease. 

Naude is embarrassed when praised for his try-scoring abilities. He is quick to explain that any winger is only as good as his teammates allow him to be.

He considers getting to captain Tuks for the first time as an honour. 

"There is such a proud tradition at Tuks that to captain any team comes with absolute responsibility. I believe the best way to lead is by setting an example on the field. 

"Sevens rugby is for me about total trust. The moment you start doubting in a teammate's ability is when the things tend to go wrong. There is never any margin for error. Every minute counts."

Last year Tuks was slightly unlucky during the USSA Tournament. They had to settle for winning the plate-final. It was not due to them playing bad rugby. 

Tuks played a total of eight games, losing only one and drawing one. Unfortunately, in sevens rugby, it takes only one loss for any team's goal to derail. 

Dabeon Draghoender (Tuks coach) is hesitant to make bold predictions. 

"I wish we had time to properly prepare for the USSA and Varsity Tournaments. The reality, however, is that our sevens season is going no more than three weeks. 

"Most of our players have playing proper rugby up to last week. Now they suddenly got to change their mindsets and adapt to a totally different style of playing. It is going to be a challenge. But knowing the players, they will be up to it.

"In one way we are lucky in that the core of the team that won the Varsity Tournament last year is still playing. We also got some exciting youngsters playing for the first time."

Draghoender expects Stephan Coetzee to impact over the weekend. 

"He is big and robust, which means when he has the ball in hand, it is going to be hard to stop him. It might take one or two players to take him down, and that will create space for us to attack."

Marco Labuschagne, who has played for the Blitzboks, is another exciting newcomer to Tuks. 

The Tuks squad for USSA's is WJ Strydom,  Dewald Naude, Irvin Ali, Stephan Coetzee, Luke Haynes, Marco Labuschagne, Cornell Korff, Enrique Orjane, Micheal Amiras, Jaco Snyman, Mangaliso Ntimba, Timothy Allias.