Coach Neil Powell has made two changes to the Blitzboks squad for the final two World Series rounds.

Stephan Dippenaar and Philip Snyman have both recovered from their knee injuries sustained in Hong Kong and return to the squad in place of the Carel du Preez and the injured Justin Geduld (hamstring).

South Africa is currently leading the World Series standings after seven rounds, and will return to Glasgow, the venue of their Commonwealth Games triumph of last year, before closing out the season a week later at Twickenham.

They will face tough competition to make it through to the Cup quarter-finals after being drawn in the same pool as New Zealand, Samoa and Kenya.

'We are in a very tough pool and will have to fight all the way to qualify for the quarter-finals. Each pool match will be a knockout match for us, so there will be no room for complacency,' said Powell. 'It is important that we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves and think about the title race and Olympic qualification. The most important thing for us will be our first pool match, and then the next one after that.

'We always strive for consistency and if we can manage to achieve our team objectives in each of the matches that we play, then I am sure the results will come.'

Blitzboks fixtures (9 May)

11:58 vs Samoa
15:04 vs Kenya
18:37 vs New Zealand

Blitzboks squad – Chris Dry, Philip Snyman, Frankie Horne, Kwagga Smith, Werner Kok, Kyle Brown (c), Branco du Preez, Stephan Dippenaar, Ruhan Nel, Cecil Afrika, Seabelo Senatla, Rosko Specman.

Photo: Duif du Toit/Gallo Images