Durban - The Blitzboks finished in a dismal 13th place at the Los Angeles Sevens last week but coach Neil Powell says all is far from lost as the World Cup in Cape Town rapidly approaches.
That was the lowest the Blitzboks have ever finished in a tournament since Powell took charge 10 years ago and it was also his farewell to the World Sevens Series, with the World Cup his swansong before he joins the Sharks as their Director of Rugby.
The South Africans still managed to finish second overall in the 2022 Series and now there will be a frantic focus on a World Cup that is just 10 days away.
Firstly, though, Powell said his team needs to digest what happened in Los Angeles
“We need to look back at this tournament before we can look towards Cape Town,” he said. “There are lessons to learn from the weekend, so to just discard what happened there will not be the best thing to do.”
Powell will take it upon himself and his management to do the soul searching.
“It is more for our management; the players need to stay positive,” he said. “It was a poor performance, but we did see some positives. The last game against Japan was much more to our standard and we will use that as a positive example of what we can do as a team to create some momentum on our way to Cape Town.“
The short turnaround – the team only arrives back in Cape Town on Tuesday evening – will demand clever management, Powell admitted. “We will need to plan our sessions from here on in to make sure we get the best result out of every training session,” he said.
“Our consistency over the last five tournaments was not great, and it is a bit of a worry. We recovered so well to hit a high at the Commonwealth Games, but in the World Series, it became an issue. It is a worry because our consistency over long periods of time almost became a hallmark of the team.”
There is always some light for Powell, even in the darkest gloom. “On the flip side, we showed that we can get into the right frame of mind to win standalone tournaments like we showed at the Commonwealth Games.
“That is a positive and we need to have that same mindset come the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Much of that will depend on how we train in the next 10 days and that will be the biggest focus of the coaching team, we need to make sure we can create that momentum in training that will be needed to do well in Cape Town.”
Powell said the injuries to Zain Davids, Dewald Human and Darren Adonis could not come at a worse time.
Davids was included in the Dream Team for the 2022 season, a confirmation of his stellar contributions, but an ankle injury could rule him out of the World Cup. Human and Adonis will be assessed on Wednesday.
“We are already a bit thin on tighthead and flyhalf and those injuries are not making our job easier,” the coach admitted. “Zain’s inclusion into the Dream Team was well earned and it will be a blow if he cannot make it to Cape Town.”
World Rugby Sevens Series 2022 – final standings:
126: Australia
124: South Africa
122: Fiji
118: Argentina
92: Ireland
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