Durban — The Blitzboks bombed out at the Los Angeles Sevens at the weekend but the silver lining to the cloud is that coach Neil Powell knows exactly what to fix ahead of the approaching Sevens World Cup in Cape Town.
The Blitzboks lost matches to the US and New Zealand in their Pool B fixtures on day one of the last tournament in the World Sevens Series to crash out of quarter-final contention and while at the time of writing there was a vague chance the Blitzboks could still win the overall title, it was highly unlikely.
A disappointed Powell said that a lack of defensive cohesion and an under-powered team effort was responsible for the losses on day one and the unimpressive win over Canada.
“We conceded way more tries than usual and that was very disappointing,” said Powell. “The defensive effort from the players was too individualistic and we did not trust the system. When we play as a unit, it brings us success and that did not happen out there.
“It was not always due to a lack of trying — some guys really did their best out there — but rather players wanting to do things on their own. That is not what we stand for as a team, hence the disappointment,” said Powell.
The coach said they were not expecting miracles on day two, when they face Wales in the ninth place play-off on Sunday evening, with many results needing to go South Africa’s way if they were to retain the World Series title.
"We will have to assess where we stand and what we want out of the day,” said Powell. “We have Dewald Human and Zain Davids out already, so will need to look toward the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town in two weeks time and start to manage some of our key players accordingly.
“We will give it our best shot against Wales and see where we are in relation to the World Series table and then plan from there.”
IOL Sport