Powell cautious despite big lead

South Africa are determined to win their fifth tournament in the 2016/17 World Sevens Series in Vanvouver, Canada, this weekend.

The South Africans secured their fourth tournament win after beating Fiji 19-12 in Las Vegas.

It was not the most clinical of performances, but the fact that they were able to come back every time when the chips were down, was the most pleasing aspect of the Blitzboks win at the Las Vegas Sevens, says Springbok sevens coach, Neil Powell.

The winning coach was a proud and a happy man after his squad’s victory in the final to win another consecutive World Rugby Sevens Series tournament title and a fourth in the season.

“I am very happy,” Powell told Rugby Planet.

“It was not our most clinical performance of the season at all, but we got the result and that is what was important. I would rather win ugly than lose pretty. The guys showed tremendous fighting spirit and always managed to come back and score the tries we needed to win the matches. They kept their focus and played very well in the second half of the matches, never giving up.”

The Blitzboks travelled without stalwarts like Seabelo Senatla and Kwagga Smith, but still managed to claim top honours. Both are playing Super Rugby.

“I thought Siviwe Soyizwapi and Dylan Sage did very well in taking over the roles of those two stalwarts. We are pretty blessed with our depth in the squad. It is good for the players also to realise that the structure is a sound one and as long as they look after it, the better the structure will look after them,” Powell explained.

He was pleased that they could extend the lead on the overall points’ log, but warns that half of the tournaments in the series still needs to be played.

“We are in a good position, but we need to maintain our form and cannot think that things will just happen for us from now on. We need to stay grounded and start afresh, as we will need to do in Vancouver this weekend.”