Cape Town – It was almost written in the stars that the Blitzboks were going to experience a disastrous Rugby World Cup Sevens on home soil.
The 24-14 defeat to Ireland in the Championship quarter-final late (very late) on Saturday night, may have been seismic in the context of the sevens game, but it was hardly surprising.
The Blitzboks lost stalwarts Zain Davids and Dewald Human to injury in their last World Series tournament in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, while another experienced operator in Justin Geduld was also ruled out months before.
That is why coach Neil Powell pulled out a wildcard in the shape of veteran Cecil Afrika out of nowhere.
But then, to add insult to injury, the South Africans had to deal with a tricky schedule in Cape Town as well. Due to the new knockout format, the Blitzboks were in action after 7pm against Chile on Friday, and then had to wait more than 24 hours for their next match – the quarter-final against Ireland, at the ungodly (even for sevens fans) hour of 10.33pm.
So, it would have been hard for the players to get into the rhythm that a normal World Series event would’ve provided, where you play at least two matches per day – and then it was such a long wait too.
Those are not excuses for the desperately poor display against the Irish, though, who had knocked-out England 17-5 on Friday afternoon, which meant an even longer waiting period than the Blitzboks.
Powell, in his swansong before heading to the Sharks in 15s, gambled yet again with his starting team by leaving captain Siviwe Soyizwapi and big Impi Visser on the bench.
He did the same thing in the win over Chile, with Soyizwapi saying on Friday night that the South Africans needed to improve their defence considerably.
And without Zain Davids and Dewald Human, one would’ve thought Powell would bring in experienced campaigners such as Soyizwapi, Visser and even Afrika on such a big occasion.
But that plan didn’t work out, with the efficient Irish keeping things simple with good passing, angled running and offloads in the tackle to outlast a sloppy Blitzbok outfit.
The South Africans lost two lineouts in a row in the second half with the score level at 7-7, and it proved costly as Harry McNulty pounced to put Ireland 12-7 up, and they gained enough momentum to grab two further touchdowns through the speedy Jordan Conroy.
The home side wasted two vital chances in the first half that came back to haunt them, with Ronald Brown overcooking his pass to Sako Makata down the right with the tryline open in front of him, and then Muller du Plessis not releasing the ball a few metres short and continuing to roll forward to concede a penalty.
The pressure got to the Blitzboks, and they froze in front of what was still a decent diehard crowd in the rain at Cape Town Stadium.
Powell deserved a better send-off for his long service to the team, having seen his squad blow a great opportunity to secure the World Series in Los Angeles recently as well.
But as the man himself said cryptically on Thursday, “I also know that life isn’t always a fairytale”, after saying “How amazing won’t it be if we could sing Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika for one last time!”
*The Blitzboks now have to pick themselves up off the floor on Sunday as they take on Argentina at 11.02am in what is a meaningless encounter in the bigger scheme of things…
IOL Sport
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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