Coach bemoans 'lack of effort' from 'disrespectful' BlitzBoks

REACTION: South Africa managed to, barely, cling on to an all-important top-four spot in Sevens World Series.

However, the BlitzBoks failed to fire at the Los Angeles leg, Round Six of the series.

New Zealand won their second tournament in the series by claiming the crown in California and look set to finish top of the series.

With six of 11 2023 Series tournaments played, New Zealand has amassed 107 points, 21 more than Los Pumas, who are now second.

They have overtaken South Africa, who endured a horrid tournament and managed just one win all weekend.

Both Argentina and South Africa have 86 points, but Los Pumas go ahead based on their +200 points difference to the BlitzBoks’ +85.

Fiji (fourth on 84 points) and Samoa (fifth, 81) are also closing in on the BlitzBoks in that all-important race for a top-four finish and an automatic Olympic qualification spot.

The BlitzBoks lost both their fixtures, to Fiji (7-28) in the quarterfinals and Samoa (5-45) in the fifth-place qualifying match, in a performance described by BlitzBok coach Sandile Ngcobo as “unacceptable and completely devoid of effort”.

To add to their woes, the BlitzBoks suffered yet another spate of injuries during the tournament – limping off the Los Angeles pitch with only nine players fit to play.

Ngcobo did not mince his words about the performances on Sunday.

“It was almost heartbreaking for me to watch from the sidelines as there was no effort at all from the players, and that hurts as the badge that we play for does not deserve that, neither do our supporters or our country,” Ngcobo said.

“It seemed that complacency crept in and that the guys were just going through the motions expecting things to happen, instead of going there and making it happen.

“A performance like this is disrespectful to our badge and to our country and we will have to have an extremely hard look at ourselves,” added Ngcobo, who said he will also do some introspection.

“I will have to ask myself why and how we delivered such a poor performance and how can we fix that,” he said.

“Yes, we did play in the final in the previous tournament in Sydney, but that counted for nothing, we had to start at zero again, but we never did.”

Ngcobo said there was no fight in his squad and that was most disappointing, especially against Samoa.

“In that last game against Samoa, they kept giving us possession [from restarts] and we kept giving it away and missing tackles,” said Ngcobo.

“That was just a lack of effort and disrespect.

“The game for me is 20 percent physical and 80 percent mental and we just did not pitch mentally.

“The system deserves better, and we will have to regroup with Vancouver {Round Seven in Canada] only five days away.”

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On Sunday, the BlitzBoks failed to get out of the starting blocks against both of their Pacific opponents.

In the quarterfinals, they allowed Fiji to jump into a 14-0 lead and with their attacking options all but eliminated due to a lack of possession, they could not
put any scoreboard pressure on the Fijians.

Fiji scored two more in the second half, again with no reply from the BlitzBoks, who could not get their hands on the ball to launch significant attacks and scoring opportunities.

A late try by Ricardo Duarttee eased some pain, but the damage was done.

The match against Samoa proved an even bigger disappointment, as the men in blue completely dominated the match, scoring four tries in the first half and then three more in the second.

The match was an arm wrestle in the opening stanza.

Samoa scored after five minutes and then twice in a minute, both from poor restart plays by the BlitzBoks.

To add to their misery, they threw an intercept pass early in the second half to concede a fifth try in eight minutes of play.

There were two more to follow as the South African effort imploded.

There was scant reward at the end of play, with Travis Ismaiel scoring his first try in a BlitzBok jersey, but that achievement was overshadowed by a very disappointing effort in the previous 13 minutes of play.

Finals day at #LA7s did not disappoint 🇺🇸 🏆

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