Cape Town - Outgoing Blitzboks coach Neil Powell has apologised to the nation for his team's woeful performance in the Rugby World Cup Sevens quarter-final defeat to Ireland on Saturday evening.
The Blitzboks played the final game at 10:33pm before a heaving DHL Stadium crowed baying for home success. But the almost 50 000 supporters left hugely disappointed after the 24-14 loss that consigned the Blitzboks to the Plate competition for the remainder of the tournament.
"We are sorry for the disappointment and nobody is more disappointed than us as a team, and myself as a coach," Powell told the media.
"It was obviously not the ideal outcome. For me the game is about momentum. If you get opportunities at the knockout stage and you don't use them then you are going to struggle to pull the game back."
The Blitzboks were guilty of numerous individual errors which started from the very first kickoff.
Everything seemed to go astray from that moment with Ireland opening the scoring, before the Blitzboks wasted a golden opportunity when Ronald Brown threw a pass into touch with an open tryline on offer.
The mistakes continued with numerous lineouts being spilled.
"We did not execute our game plan and committed basic errors, in terms of our cleanout and passing into touch. Those are basic errors from players who are normally a lot more clinical in the execution of their skillset," Powell said.
Sunday will be Powell's last day in charge of the Blitzboks before he takes up his post as Sharks director of rugby.
With the fairytale fairwell having crashed and burnt, has it left a bitter taste for Powell?
"I will probably (think about the last day) but not with the sweet memories that I wanted to, but like I said before the tournament, life is not always a fairytale, it doesn't always work out like you want it to, so lets face what we still need to and we'll say our goodbyes after that.
"It is always tough when the guys are out of the Cup competition. But hopefully we will play for the pride of the jersey."
IOL Sport