Blitzboks’ flair for the dramatic could help them at World Cup

The knockout format of the Sevens Rugby World Cup in San Francisco makes for a daunting level of unpredictability, but injured former captain Kyle Brown says the Blitzboks’ experience of clinching the World Series in the most dramatic fashion in Paris will stand them in good stead on Friday.

South Africa had to win the Paris title to have any chance of claiming the overall series crown and they struggled their way to the quarterfinals and then to the final, where they beat England to salvage a campaign that seemed to have gone wrong.

Their first game at the Rugby World Cup will be against either Ireland or Chile, and defeat would send them into the lesser of the three different streams that make up the tournament.

“From the quarterfinals of the Paris tournament we only had one shot and any mistake would have lost us the World Series, so the lessons gained from playing in that sudden-death environment will be exceptionally valuable for the team this week. We needed to find a certain level in Paris and they stepped up and did it.

“The format is very different with 24 teams, but change can be fun. In order to win the World Cup, you have to fire red-hot from the start and I think we’re going to see a lot of surprises. But our team can take plenty of inspiration from the amazing story of our World Series win, using 28 players which was a record for a winning side,” Brown said at a Laureus Sport for Good Foundation rugby breakfast.

“The first game of a tournament is always very difficult and it will be interesting to see whether we play Ireland or Chile. The South American sides do a lot of offloading and their defence is very strong, they chop your ankles and just never miss any tackles. If you allow them to loosen up the game, they will run you off the field.

“Ireland are fairly similar to us, they are quite structured with set-pieces and setting phases up. The way they played in London and Paris was phenomenal and whoever we played would have had better preparation than us because they’ve played a game already,” Brown said.

The leader of the team that won bronze at the 2016 Olympics, Brown has had to edit his feelings over the frustrating knee injury that has kept him out of a second Sevens Rugby World Cup campaign.

“I thought I was okay with missing out until a couple of days ago, when I went to the capping ceremony, which was tough. It’s a very special event, but I played in eight out of 10 series events this year, which is a lot more than last year, so I’m grateful,” the likeable Capetonian said.

For more sport your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.