Johannesburg - The Blitzboks finished day two of the France Sevens on Saturday with a bang by beating Japan 40-0, but that is hardly going to cheer them up after they failed to make the quarter-finals of the main event thanks to losses to Ireland and the USA.
This meant that the South Africans only finished third in their pool and lost the opportunity to extend their lead on the overall World Rugby Sevens Series log.
They at least picked themselves up to rout the Japanese in the ninth-place quarter-finals and will face Scotland in the semi-finals on Sunday. The match will be broadcast on SuperSport at 12.12pm
Luckily for the Blitzboks, their nearest contender on the log, Argentina, also suffered a defeat at the hands of Ireland in the Cup quarter-finals, so the South Americans are unlikely to overhaul South Africa’s lead at the top of the standings.
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The tournament concludes on Sunday and both Argentina and Australia would have gained ground on the Blitzboks.
Springbok Sevens captain, Siviwe Soyizwapi, lamented their performance against Samoa and said the team only had themselves to blame.
“It is disappointing that we could not make the quarter-finals, but we just made too many errors against Samoa to put ourselves in a position to win,” he said.
“At least we bounced back well against Japan and will use that momentum for our match against Scotland.”
Soyizwapi pointed to the fact that they are still very much in contention to win the overall series: “This is a tough sport and if you make one mistake, you pay the price. We – and other big-name teams like New Zealand – found that out today.
“At times, you need some luck or the bounce of the ball to go your way, but today it did not go our way. It is true though that we are not playing as well as we could and that is something the players need to fix. The coaching staff prepares us well for each match, but somehow we fail to execute properly.”
Comments from skipper @SiviweSoyizwapi following Day Two of the @France7s #BestOfUs pic.twitter.com/ImWUhf9Bno
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) May 21, 2022
The Blitzboks also lost Mfundo Ndhlovu before the Samoa game with an ankle injury, and JC Pretorius during the match, and will finish the tournament with only 11 fit players.
Against Samoa, the South Africans failed to get out of the blocks. The Islanders scored twice from fluffed kick-off receipts by the Blitzboks and to make matters worse, in quick succession.
The two tries saw Samoa take a 14-0 lead, but their third five-pointer was a real killer blow. South Africa was on attack but lost the ball over the try-line. Samoa won the scrum on their own line, kicked ahead and outpaced the Boks for a 19-0 lead.
The World Series leaders played better in the second half, but they could only manage a Ronald Brown try three minutes from time.
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