We need to deliver, insists Powell
THE BLITZBOKS surely can’t wait to feel the green, green grass of home under their feet at Cape Town Stadium this weekend, but coach Neil Powell has warned them that they are in a “dangerous pool”.
Powell has retained his experienced Dubai-winning side for the second leg of the World Sevens Series. They will face Australia, Russia and the USA in Pool A on a tough opening day, and Powell wants his guys to be ready as soon as they step onto the pitch.
“We need to be sharp on Saturday, as it is a dangerous pool, with all three teams capable of beating a more favourite team,” he said. “The fact that we play at home will lift the players, no doubt, but we cannot just rock up and expect the crowd to motivate us and win the games for us with their support. We need to deliver and get them in the game.”
Powell’s team will look to not only build on their roaring momentum from the Dubai tournament, but also defend the title they won at last year’s inaugural Cape Town event.
And if the Blitzboks bag a second win in as many weeks, they will secure their fourth consecutive title at home, after winning in Port Elizabeth in 2013 and 2014.
Judging by the efforts in Dubai, the South Africans stand a good chance of doing so. They won all of their matches in the desert, and although they were made to work hard for a win at times, they were near unstoppable once they got going.
And, of course, their performances against New Zealand in the quarter-finals, and against Olympic champions Fiji in the final, showed just how good the Blitzboks really are.
They produced complete performances on attack, defence and at the breakdowns, and there were also impressive individual moments, but Powell highlighted a few areas that still needed improvement.
“I was happy with how the guys performed, especially on Day Two. We were a bit hard on the guys for not playing to the best of their ability on Day One, especially after that game against Scotland,” he said.
“But everything came together after that game against New Zealand. But there’s always room for improvement and I think one area we’re going to look to improve is our ability to hold onto the ball, especially in contact. And then our lineouts and kickoff retrieval.
“(But) we have a good foundation and we have the first game against Russia to build on it, and also the rest of the tournament,” Powell added.
With a total of 375 tournament caps, the Springbok Sevens squad is the most experienced of the 16 nations competing this weekend.
“We are fortunate to be able to again field an experienced squad. There were niggles from Dubai, but those were expected as the guys have not played for a couple of months,” Powell said. “Luckily for us, we came back from Dubai without any serious injuries and lots of belief in our systems.”
The Blitzboks shouldn’t be lacking any confidence but with the pressure and expectation piled on the hosts, Powell has introduced some special measures to refocus the team.
“We had to start from scratch again. The players are experienced enough to be able to do that themselves, so I hope the triggers we provided will be successful,” he said.
Powell also revealed the team’s goals for the seasons: “We have two goals for this season. One is to become the number one team in the world, and the other is to develop the next generation of Sevens stars.
“We also have to develop the next generation of leaders for 2020. We want to start with that process and come Wellington and Sydney, we want to give introduce this youngsters to the World Sevens circuit,” he added.