Sandile Ngcobo has stayed upbeat about the Blitzboks’ performance in the opening two tournaments of the Sevens Series, despite a disappointing final day in Cape Town.
The Blitzboks fell flat in front of their home crowd on day two of the Cape Town Sevens on Sunday, suffering heavy defeats to Australia in the quarter-finals and then New Zealand in the fifth-place playoff to finish sixth overall.
The underwhelming finish in Cape Town came a week after the Springbok Sevens opened their campaign with a Dubai Sevens tournament win.
Despite the results in Cape Town, Ngcobo believes the overall assessment of his team over the first two tournaments of the Sevens Series is positive.
“Possession was key, and we simply did not look well enough after ours,” said Ngcobo. “We were attacked at the breakdown, and we need to muscle up in that area, as we lost too many balls there.
“We showed we can put any team away over the last two weeks and that was something we tried to work towards in our pre-season. Yes, Sunday was not a great day, but we will have a good look at why and then make the necessary adaptions.”
On the Blitzboks’ defeats to Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, Ngcobo pointed to the competitive nature of the new format of the Sevens Series
“It is very competitive and every match counts,” he said.
“We saw again this weekend how teams who were off the pace last week came good here and vice versa. Canada, who finished 12th, showed they can beat anyone for example. This is going to be a very tough series to win.”
Ngcobo indicated that the team will take a short break and return to camp early in January to start preparations for the next event in Perth.
“We will have a look at who is returning from injury and what the individual performances in Dubai and Cape Town contributed or not to the way we played,” he said.
“We did not suffer any serious injuries over the last two weekends and that bodes well to start with a strong squad next year.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Blitzboks suffered a quarter-final defeat to Australia before New Zealand also outplayed the hosts for fifth place.
Argentina beat Australia 45-12 in the cup final to claim their first Cape Town Sevens title, while Australia’s women held off an epic fightback from France to claim back-to-back titles.
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images