Blitzboks lament poor ball control in Dubai

Springbok Sevens head coach Philip Snyman was not pleased with his team’s sixth place at the Dubai Sevens and pointed to their inability to secure and keep possession as the big work-on for next weekend’s SVNS Cape Town at Cape Town Stadium.

A change in the format means there will be no room for error in the Cape Town tournament, but Snyman is positive that the Blitzboks will be able to turn things around this week.

Snyman said some aspects of their play in Dubai were satisfactory, such as finishing top of Pool A on day one at the SEVENS, but two close defeats on Sunday, to New Zealand and France, did not sit well with him or the squad.

The defeat to New Zealand meant that the Blitzboks’ hopes of winning a sixth straight title went up in flames.

“We gave away so much possession, it is almost unreal,” Snyman said.

“We were the team with the least possession all tournament and that is already unacceptable, but to then also give the ball away when we have it, even more so.

“Sadly in both matches today, against New Zealand and France, we had the ball to close out the game only to give it to the opponents, who then scored from that and defeated us. That is not acceptable.

“We also had a poor weekend with restart receives and returned possession to the opponents immediately because of that. There is no excuse for that, you just have to catch the ball, but we could not do that, something that is just not good enough and will be a work on this week.”

Snyman said the defensive effort was also disappointing with a number of one-on-one tackles that were ineffective and resulted in tries for their opponents.

“We had a poor weekend in those three areas, but all of that can be improved on,” he said.

“We are a squad that don’t mind to put our heads down and work hard, so that is something we will improve on, I have no doubt about that.”

The Blitzbok coach was upbeat about next weekend’s tournament in Cape Town, where South Africa will contest Pool C against Argentina and Ireland, and said they will be doing their utmost to make the home crowd happy with solid performances.

“There were a number of players who excelled playing in the A-side and will have a case to make for selection,” he said.

“We will do the medicals tomorrow and see who will not be available for Cape Town, but for now, I remain confident in our group. Someone like Donovan Don really showed his abilities and that was exciting to see.”

Snyman said they will invite some extra players to train with the team this week to make sure it is a ‘very competitive’ environment. He will name his squad on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the pools for Cape Town have been confirmed. In a change to the Dubai format, the four winners of the pools will contest the semifinals on Sunday, making each pool game a must-win.

HSBC SVNS Cape Town pools:

A: Fiji, Great Britain, Uruguay

B: Spain, Australia, Kenya

C: South Africa, Argentina, Ireland

D: New Zealand, France, US

-SA Rugby