Blitzboks stumble into cup quarters to face Fiji in LA Sevens

The Springbok Sevens will face Fiji in the Cup quarterfinals of the HSBC LA Sevens on Sunday after an Saturday’s eventful first day of sevens at Dignity Health Stadium in Los Angeles. 

Torrid weather conditions forced numerous postponements to matches, with the Blitzboks seeing their second match of the day, against Uruguay, moved twice as lightning in the area prevented play. 

On top of that a lethargic display by the Blitzboks saw them lose two of their pool matches. 

A hard-fought opening win against Canada (12-5) saw SA start Saturday on a positive note, but there was not much to smile about for the remainder of the day, with defeats against both Uruguay and Ireland. 

Other results in the pool resulted in South Africa, Canada and Uruguay ending on the same number of log points, the Blitzboks progressing on points difference. 

For Springbok Sevens assistant coach, Philip Snyman, there was little to celebrate.  

“The conditions apart, we did not play well. We did fairly well in our game against Canada, but against Uruguay we were really poor at the breakdown and protecting our ball,” he said. 

“We were too slow to the breakdown and gave possession away unnecessarily. 

“The performance against Ireland was also below their standards. We had numerous opportunities to put them under pressure and get points, but we did not used them. We kicked possession away with players in good positions and at other times just needed to play the overlap, but did not do so. ” 

SA will have to better against Fiji in the knock-out match, he said. 

“We are in the top eight yes, but we cannot expect other results going our way and then be happy about it. We want to have our fate in our own hands. We have that now, so will go back, recover and come back stronger tomorrow.” 

The opener against Canada was a close affair. Play went from one side of the field to the another as both teams managed good attacking opportunities, but defence on both sides held firm. 

The Blitzboks were shocked by a first World Series defeat to Uruguay with the South Americans scoring the decisive points less than 20 seconds from time. 

Scores:  

South Africa 12 (5) — Tries: Christie Grobbelaar, Ricardo Duarttee. Conversion: Ronald Brown. 

Canada 0 

South Africa 5 (5) — Try: Ronald Brown. 

Uruguay 10 (0) — Tries: Mateo Vinals, Bautista Basso. 

South Africa (5) — Try: Shilton van Wyk 

Ireland (7) — Tries: Dylan O'Grady, Harry McNulty. Conversions: Billy Dardis (2).