Africa-Press – South-Africa. Six tries against France and a victory over
New Zealand in their last two matches at the HSBC Canada Sevens in Vancouver,
as well as an improved finish than in Singapore a week before, pointed to a
positive ending for the Blitzboks at the end of their trip to Asia and North
America, but the overall performances were below par and can’t be sugar-coated.
That was the frank assessment of Blitzboks Sevens coach, Neil Powell, at the completion of the fifth and sixth legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series in Singapore and Vancouver, where the Blitzboks
saw an erosion of their overall lead on the standings to Argentina and
Australia.
South Africa now lead the World Series by
only six points on 111, with Argentina (105) and Australia (100) closing in.
The Blitzboks could only harvest 23 league points in the last two tournaments,
while Argentina gathered 35 and Australia 34 points over the same period.
Three tournaments remain, in Toulouse and
London at the end of May and in Los Angeles late in August.
Powell was not looking at the standings
only in his assessment of the Blitzboks’ performances – after winning all three
of their pool matches on the first day in Vancouver, the South Africans lost to
Samoa in the Cup quarter-final before rebounding with wins against France and
New Zealand to finish the tournament in fifth place overall.
“It was a tough two weeks and not something
that we are happy about as a team,” said Powell.
“We will have to ask tough questions to
ourselves on what happened and what areas we need to improve on.
“As
individuals, we will have a serious conversation on our performances, but also
as a team, where we did not function as we should have.
“The way we finished in those last two matches
remains a positive; we really turned it around. But that does not detract from
those weak moments, and we need to hard on ourselves to make sure it does not
happen in the next two tournaments.”
The squad did not show their usual
consistency in performances, and Powell said it would need to be addressed: “We
had hot and cold moments, and sadly those cold ones proved crucial and very
costly. It is something we need to look at – the players and the coaching staff
alike – to see how and why it happened and what can be done to prevent that.”
Powell pointed to the mental readiness of
the squad as well: “This is a physical and well as a mental game and at times
we did not mentally respond the way we used to.”
Despite the disappointments, there were
some positives for Powell too, which included the return of Fiji, Samoa and New
Zealand to the World Series after missing out in the early rounds due to the
pandemic.
“They do test you in different ways and
areas and some of the young guys in the team needed to learn and experience
what those were,” he said.
“You can tell them what to expect, but they
might not believe you until they experienced it themselves, especially the
physicality in contact areas. We needed to play against them and although we
lost two (Fiji and Samoa) and won the one (New Zealand) we can be successful
against them if we implement correctly.”
There were mixed feelings for James Murphy,
who scored the winning try against New Zealand, but he was proud of the
comeback effort.
“From an individual point of view, this was
about grabbing opportunities presented, and I am pleased with the way I
reacted,” said Murphy, who didn’t feature in Singapore and only joined the
squad in Vancouver as an injury replacement.
“It is always great to finish off a try
like that where the whole team did their bit.”
Murphy feels a better start to their
matches will be crucial for the Blitzboks: “We lost to Samoa – and credit to
them – by playing against ourselves as well.
“That first half was horrible. We conceded
penalties, we gave the ball away and allowed them too much of a lead. We need
to cut out those errors because when we did against France and New Zealand, we
could stay in the game.”
South Africa will face Samoa, Ireland and
Spain in Pool D in Toulouse, to be played on 20-22 May.
Argentina, who won in Vancouver, will
travel to France as top seeds and will face England, Canada and Japan in Pool A.
Meanwhile, Fiji, France, Wales and Kenya
will contest Pool B. Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and USA will be in a
very competitive Pool C.
Selected 2022 season stats for the
Blitzboks:
Most points:
141: Ronald Brown
138: Selvyn Davids
105: Siviwe Soyizwapi
70: JC Pretorius
Most tries:
24: Selvyn Davids
21: Siviwe Soyizwapi
14: JC Pretorius
13: Ronald Brown
10: Zain Davids
Most tackles made:
68: Zain Davids
55: Christie Grobbelaar
51: JC Pretorius
50: Selvyn Davids
49: Impi Visser
HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series
standings:
111: South Africa
105: Argentina
100: Australia
70: USA
69: Ireland
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