Blitzboks relinquish World Series top spot

IT was a very costly weekend for the Springbok Sevens team as they dropped to second place behind Fiji in the World Rugby Sevens Series after finishing fourth in Singapore – and lost stand-in skipper Kyle Brown for the season with a knee injury.

The Blitzboks started the bronze final with only 10 fit players – and were beaten 26-24 by England yesterday.

Earlier, the South Africans were edged 12-10 by Fiji in the semifinals of the tournament, the eighth of the 10 in the world series.

Fiji, who started the tournament three points behind the Blitzboks and beat Australia 28-22 in the final, have now overhauled South Africa at the top of the log and lead by four points with two tournaments remaining, in London and Paris. To make matters worse for Neil Powell’s team, Brown injured knee ligaments and will require surgery to repair the damage.

He will not be available to play in the final two tournaments of the series, as well as the Rugby Sevens World Cup in July, in San Francisco.

On the opening day of the HSBC Singapore Sevens, the Blitzboks lost the services of Rosko Specman, while Selvyn Davids missed the encounter against England because of injury.

The Blitzboks opened the day with a 24-12 win over Kenya in the Cup quarterfinals, with Siviwe Soyizwapi scoring three tries.

However, against Fiji they failed to hang on to a 10-0 lead, with a sole conversion again the difference between the two sides – which was the same margin of defeat against England.

Powell said that although the outcome was not what the Blitzboks wanted, as the coach he was pleased with a number of aspects.

“We asked the players for three things – to bring energy, look after the system and put in the effort, and they did that,” Powell said.

“We are very harsh when we evaluate ourselves and I am happy that the South African players delivered on those things we wanted.

“We made some unmistakable mistakes, though, and we are still striving for that perfect game.

“The season is not over yet and I am looking forward to those two remaining tournaments.”

The coach was also pleased by the performances of the younger players.

“We have some senior players available at home, but after the performance of these younger players, there will be a good competition for places.

“The guys gave everything – and it is sad that they did not get anything out of the tournament.”