The 10th and final tournament in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series takes place at the Stade Jean-Bouin on Saturday and Sunday.
Arendse (concussion) and Gans (hand) picked up their injuries at the HSBC London Sevens and was ruled out of the final leg of the season.
The last of Ndlovu’s three tournaments for the Blitzboks was in Las Vegas in March, where he picked up a wrist injury. He was replaced by Arendse for the Vancouver leg of the World Series. He has scored three tries in 14 matches.
Afrika injured his hamstring a year ago in London and this will be his first appearance in the 2018/19 World Series, following a long rehabilitation period.
The former World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year is the Blitboks’ leading points’ scorer of all time, with 1430 points in 61 tournaments and 318 matches.
The injuries to Gans and Arendse left Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell without his two centres in the team, but he is pleased that Afrika and Ndhlovu can take over.
“Yes, both our injured players play in the same position, with Stedman covering for us at flyhalf as well, so it was a bit of a problem,” Powell said.
“I am happy to be able to bring someone with Cecil's experience into the team, while Mfundo has shown in the past that he can play at this level. This is also a great opportunity for him to gain more experience. He was probably a bit unlucky to miss out in selection in the first place.”
Powell was also pleased to see Afrika back in the mix: “I am very happy for Cecil, who came back from a long-term injury, and I’m pleased that we can give him an opportunity before the season ends.”
With fourth position on the log secured and Olympic qualification out of the way, Powell is planning some experiments with his playing squad this weekend.
“We still want to do well and end the season on a high, but to qualify with one tournament to go has given us a bit of leeway,” said Powell.
“We want to start some of the guys who did not do so in the past and experiment with one or two players in a position where we could see them perform in future.”
Powell said the performance in London was not what they had wanted: “We are not happy with our consistency. We pride ourselves on our consistency in recent years, but our standards dropped this year with the bigger number of new players coming into the squad. That is something we will address in our culture as we continue our building phase.”
South Africa will face Australia, Wales and Kenya in Pool B of the HSBC Paris Sevens.
The schedule for Saturday is:
11h44 Wales
15h10 Kenya
18h58: Australia
