Blitzboks need to find consistency in London as new players join the fold

The Blitzboks will need to leave it all on the field this weekend as this season nears its culmination. London is the penultimate leg of the Sevens circuit and the final event – in Los Angeles – is just three months away.

After having won the first four tournaments, and accumulating maximum points, the Springboks Sevens team let an 18-point buffer between themselves and the next-best team, Argentina, slip as they now trail the South Americans by two points on the overall standings.

Surprisingly, despite leading the standings, Argentina has only won one of the seven Sevens circuit legs played so far – in Vancouver.

However, the Pumas’ consistency throughout this series has been their greatest strength – their worst performances being two fifth-place finishes, in Singapore and Toulouse.

On the contrary, the Blitzboks, despite having won four legs, have had up-and-down results, with their finish last weekend in Toulouse the worst thus far. They gained only five points after their ninth-place semifinal loss to Scotland.

Blitzboks coach Neil Powell described Toulouse as “the worst performance at a tournament in my career”.

“Soft moments and basic skills not executed well, rather than lack of effort, were holding us back,” he said.

“We had some areas that were really poor in Toulouse. Our kick-off receives was one of them and we lost three of the four restarts against Samoa, for example. That is giving the ball straight back to the opponents and at this level it is looking for trouble, especially when you do so at critical times in the game.”

Powell has committed to his side producing better performances and results in London.

“Those are small areas in the game that we need to improve on, but also areas that we know we can improve on. We worked on those, and the results will be better this weekend.”

London-bound

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