Business Day

Blitzboks to ‘reset’ their focus

- /TimesLIVE

Blitzboks coach Neil Powell has promised his side will reset their focus at the Singapore leg of the HSBC World Seven Series this weekend, writes Craig Ray.

The Blitzboks still lead the World Series by three points over Fiji with three rounds of the season to play.

But after missing out on a medal at the Commonweal­th Games at Gold Coast in Australia 10 days ago (which was not a World Series tournament), Powell believes he has identified how and why his side fell short at the four-yearly event.

“We have closed the door on the Commonweal­th Games and are fully focused on our first game in Singapore against Samoa, because it is going to be a tough one,” Powell said.

“I don’t want to become too focused on finishing above Fiji this weekend. The problem we identified after the Games was that we had become too resultsfoc­used and moved away from being process-driven. That put unnecessar­y pressure on the team,” he said.

“If we go into the Singapore tournament with the same mind-set of worrying about beating Fiji, we are not concentrat­ing on our processes.

“We just want to go out and play like we usually do, which is to look after our system, implement our processes and put in the effort. When we do that, the results usually take care of themselves,” the coach said.

Powell believes the poor result in Australia has refocused minds in the squad as they attempt to wrest the momentum from Fiji, who have won three of the past four World Series events to close in on SA at the top of the standings.

Three weeks ago, the Blitzboks sent a second-string team to the Hong Kong Sevens and came third, losing 26-24 to Fiji in the semifinals. As a result, six of those players have forced their way into the squad in Singapore this week.

“As a coach and as players, if you get to a point where we feel you know everything and can stop learning, then you will be in trouble,” Powell said.

“We have learnt lessons from the Gold Coast and sometimes you need a bad tournament to make you realise that you have shifted focus from what works.

“An under-par performanc­e doesn’t make us a bad team, me a bad coach or the players bad players. We just have to realign our focus.”

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