The South African Sevens side have over a month to recover and regroup before the third leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series in Sydney at the end of January. They did not contest their home final in Cape Town, but managed to secure a consolation Bronze Medal after defeating Canada 19-17 in the third/fourth play-off.
Meanwhile, New-Zealand went on to demolish Argentina in the final with an impressive 38-14 victory securing their first Cape Town Sevens title on Sunday night.
The Cape Town leg of the World Sevens Series has evaded the Blitzbok team yet again. After winning all their pool games on day one and topping the table but day two did not go quite as planned.
In their quarter final against Fiji, the Blitzboks pulled off a miraculous comeback from 14 nil down to progress to the semi-final with a 31-26 win.
Then came the Semi-final play-off with New-Zealand which saw the Blitzbok being guilty of making more than just a few errors on the field which resulted in defeat.
Blitzbok Coach Neil Powell acknowledges they didn’t follow the game plan well enough.
“It’s not about the result. It’s about the performance on the field. I just think that we didn’t look after the system well enough in defense and attack. It is definitely something we will have a look at over the next few days.”
Powell also admits that the energy levels of the players also played a role in their semifinal defeat to the Kiwis.
“Obviously, it was going to be tough coming back from the Dubai win to get the guys mentally into the right space and to get the energy levels up again. I think maybe something that lacked (from) us in the last few games it’s just the energy levels. We almost could feel it in the semifinals and finals. So, we will have a good discussion and see if there’s anything we can do to make sure the guys are more ready for the second tournament on a tour like this.”
Blitzbok Captain Phillip Snyman, was pleased the team ended this round of the tournament with a win in the third/fourth round playoff to claim the bronze medal. But he says they did not stick to their processes in the semi-final in which they were favourites to win.
“Yes, it was a hectic week, especially the build-up to the Cape Town tournament. But we don’t want to make any excuses. I think New Zealand were better than us today and I think they are going to be capable of winning a couple tournaments this season. Unfortunately, we did not stick to our game plan in our structures. We say it does not matter the results. We are not focusing on the results, but on the processes. Unfortunately, we cannot tick the box of processes this tournament”.
The team will be on a break till the tournament resumes for the third round in Sydney, Australia, at the tail-end of January 2018.
That also means there is time for the niggling injuries in the squad to be sorted.
