BlitzBoks to bounce back in London
South Africa may have slipped to second place in the standings, but they believe they can still win the Sevens World Series.
BlitzBoks coach Neil Powell expressed his disappointment in having failed to reach the semifinals of a tournament for the first time – after they were knock out in the quarterfinals by Fiji at the penultimate leg of the World Series in Glasgow at the weekend.
Despite their quarterfinal loss, the BlitzBoks bounced back against Australia and Scotland to claim the Plate competition and 13 valuable points in the World Series race.
"It was a massive game for us against Fiji and the result did not go our way and that was disappointing," Powell said of the quarterfinal loss
"There was a lot in that match and we could not pull it through. We needed to beat them to stay top of the log and unfortunately we could not do that.
"The guys came back well though and we did well in the remaining two matches," Powell added.
South Africa, who had a four point lead on Fiji coming into the penultimate tournament of the series, dropped behind tournament winners
Fiji.
However, it is the manner in which they bounced back in the semifinal and Final of the Plate competition that gives the coach hope for next week's final tournament in London.
"We managed to beat Australia and also played well against Scotland, especially in that second half of the [Plate] Final, where we had to defend for a long time."
The coach admitted on the team not having the best of weekends in Scotland.
"It felt like we could not get out of the blocks on day one.
"It did not help that we suffered early injuries like losing Philip [Snyman] the day before the tournament and then Cecil [Afrika] yesterday [Saturday].
"Against Fiji we could not keep the ball and although we defended well, paid the price."
Powell said all is not lost.
"We are still in it and nothing has changed in our aim to win the overall series.
"We will have a look where we can improve and work on before London.
"Our goal here was to stretch the lead against Fiji and we could not do that.
"Going to London we will have it all to do.
"We need to get the confidence of the players up so that they can go out and play."
Powell will have an injury assessment of the squad on Monday and will then make a call on any injury replacements if needed.
The coach congratulated the squad who have qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio with a guaranteed top four finish.
"It is great to qualify, that was our first and foremost goal for the year and it is a tremendous achievement for us."
