Powell to get tough on players
The BlitzBoks lack of discipline cost them a place in the Cup Final in Las Vegas this past weekend. An array of penalties, including two penalty tries and two yellow cards for Rosco Specman, handed Australia victory in their Cup semifinal and Powell said that they only had themselves to blame.
"I think if you give away six or seven penalties plus a yellow card, there is no way you are going to beat any team out there, especially in the knockout stages," said Powell.
"At some stage their needs to be consequences if the guys don't listen.
"We will have a hard look at ourselves and we definitely need to improve our discipline, especially when we come to the knockout stages and lose a bit of composure in the heat of the battle.
"We will have a few hard words during the course of the week and hopefully we can correct those mistakes before this weekend."
Despite falling short in the Cup section in Las Vegas, Powell said they did take some consolation in that they were able to win their third-place play-off against the USA with only nine squad players after injuries to Ruhan Nel and Cecil Afrika, coupled with Specman's suspension.
"It was a good effort, especially defensively when we just had six guys on the field and we just kept them from scoring.
"It was a good, but discipline let us down in that game as well," Powell added.
The BlitzBoks have been drawn in Pool C for the Canada Sevens in Vancouver this weekend. They will play Argentina, Scotland and the invited team Brazil.
