Neil Powell says he is using the unexpected downtime to teach the youngsters in the Blitzboks set-up about financial literacy and some essential life skills needed beyond their playing careers.

The sevens rugby calendar has, like all other sporting events, fallen victim to the raging coronavirus. The season was suspended indefinitely and the highly anticipated 2020 Olympics Games showpiece was delayed by a year until 2021.

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Speaking on SuperSport’s The Grandstand show, Powell admitted that while the growing uncertainty surrounding the indefinite break in competition makes it difficult to plan for the way ahead, the break serves as an opportunity to focus on a subject matter that lies close to his heart.

‘The uncertainty makes it difficult in terms of the on-field stuff, but there’s a lot of off-field thing that we try to focus on in this time to see how we can actually develop and grow the players in a personal capacity,’ Powell said.

‘There’s still online coaching, where we are going through the game and talking about the principles. But we even it out with a bit of educational stuff as well, like financial literacy, especially with the young men that we have in our system who are getting a fairly good salary. They also learn a bit of life skills.

‘I’m trying to guide them through the process of looking after themselves, for when they are finished with rugby, especially in a financial way,’ he explained.

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