Blitzboks battle back as mixed results highlight need for consistency before world championship

Zander Reynders #21 of South Africa scores a try against Matteo Graziano #1 of Argentina during the men's pool A match on day one of the HSBC SVNS Singapore at the National Stadium on April 05, 2025 in Singapore. (Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images)

By Keanan Hemmonsbey

7 Apr 2025

Winning three out of four matches was not enough to undo an opening match hammering in Singapore for the Springbok Sevens.

Despite securing three wins from the four matches they played this weekend, the Blitzboks still only managed to finish ninth in Singapore.

The lowly finish is due to both the cutthroat nature of the 12-team shortened SVNS format, which is in its second year, as well as an implosion in the Blitzboks’ performance in their opening match of the weekend.

The Springboks Sevens side lost 38-10 against Great Britain in their first group stage game on Saturday. But the team played the majority of the match with six players after Sebastian Jobb was handed a red card early in the encounter.

At one stage in the second half, the Blitzboks only had five players on the field after Dewald Human saw yellow for a deliberate infringement.

Jobb was sent marching after a high tackle, after a head-on-head clash two minutes into the match. The match was scoreless at that point, but playing with only six players on a standard rugby field for 80% of the match was always going to be an uphill task for the Blitzboks.

“We need to address our discipline as it wasn’t up to standard, with too many cards and too many penalties,” said Springbok Sevens head coach Philip Snyman.

Dewald Human of South Africa during the men's pool A match against Argentina in Singapore. (Photo: Yong Teck Lim / Getty Images)

Ricardo Duarttee of South Africa breaks a tackly by Tomas Elizalde (left) and Facundo Pueyrredon of Argentina in Singapore. (Photo: Yong Teck Lim / Getty Images)

Zander Reynders touches down against Argentina. (Photo: Yong Teck Lim / Getty Images)

The side picked themselves up from there, however, beating series champions Argentina 26-24, scrapping past the US 14-12 before putting in their best performance of the weekend, defeating Australia 26-7.

“After that game, we decided we’re going to judge ourselves on our last three matches,” Snyman said. “We put up a massive fight against Argentina, the world’s number one team… despite beating the USA, we were not at our best and not clinical, which is probably the story of our season — too up and down, and not consistent enough.

“Then we delivered one of our best and most clinical performances against Australia, so while I have some mixed emotions, I’m very happy with the way in which we finished the tournament.”

Finding consistency

It’s the second consecutive weekend that the Blitzboks have finished ninth following their failure to progress as one of the two best sides in Hong Kong last weekend.

The double blip means South Africa finish the league standings in fourth place despite a convincing start in the first four series.

The Springbok Sevens finished sixth in Dubai, took the trophy in Cape Town, fourth in Perth and then as runners-up in Vancouver before they slumped in Hong Kong and Singapore.

“I believe in this squad and the programme, but we need to be more consistent, which is why we’re not among the top three,” Snyman said.

“We still made a massive step up from last season though. We have beaten Argentina twice and we played in two finals, but in the Asian leg in the last two weeks we came up short, which we need to address.

“We are going to continue to work very hard and make a mental shift to see how we can be more clinical and consistent, because this team has shown they can beat any other team.”

The Blitzboks still have an opportunity to seal the World Championship title, in which the top eight teams in the league phase will compete. It takes place in Los Angeles in the first weekend of May.

While the team have made improvements from last season, where they finished outside the top six for the first time in Sevens history, there is still more growth required, especially regarding consistency, according to Snyman.

“We’re still too inconsistent to be regarded as one of the good teams,” the coach said. “If we can’t get that right, we’ll struggle to be among the best, and that is one of our goals.

“At the start of the season, we said we wanted to be among the top teams while also blooding new players with the 2028 Olympic Games in mind.

“I think we did that, with someone like Zander Reynders making his debut and making massive steps up every tournament, growing as a player and a leader, while Gino Cupido came through, too. We are heading in the right direction, but we need to be more consistent.” DM

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

South Africa

Finding consistency