Blitzboks have work to do ahead of Cape Town tournament, says Snyman

Blitzboks coach Philip Snyman has been left frustrated by his players following the SA Sevens team’s sixth-place finish at the season-opening tournament in Dubai.

Snyman has lamented the team’s inability to secure and maintain possession and says it is a big work-on ahead of the second tournament of the 2024/25 season, at home in Cape Town this weekend.

And making the Blitzboks’ task that much more difficult in Cape Town is the fact only three teams will feature in each of the four pools, with the pool winners advancing to the semi-finals. There are no quarter-finals this week.

The Blitzboks have been drawn in Pool C with Argentina and Ireland.

In Dubai, the Blitzboks lost to New Zealand in the quarter-finals and then they also came unstuck in the match for fifth and sixth place, against France.

Giving up possession

“We gave away so much possession, it is almost unreal,” said Snyman.

“We were the team with the least possession all tournament and that is already unacceptable, but to then also give the ball away when we have it, even more so.

“Sadly in both matches, against New Zealand and France, we had the ball to close out the game only to give it to the opponents, who then scored from that and defeated us. That is not acceptable.

“We also had a poor weekend with restart receives and returned possession to the opponents immediately because of that. There is no excuse for that, you just have to catch the ball, but we could not do that, something that is just not good enough and will be a work on this week.”

Defence

Snyman said the defensive effort was also disappointing with a number of one-on-one tackles that were ineffective and resulted in tries for their opponents.

“We had a poor weekend in those three areas, but all of that can be improved on,” he said.

“We are a squad that don’t mind to put our heads down and work hard, so that is something we will improve on, I have no doubt about that.”

Looking ahead to this weekend’s tournament, Snyman said: “There were a number of players who excelled playing in the A-side and will have a case to make for selection.

“We will do the medicals tomorrow (Monday) and see who will not be available for Cape Town, but for now, I remain confident in our group. Someone like Donavan Don really showed his abilities (in Dubai) and that was exciting to see.”

Snyman said they will invite some extra players to train with the team this week to make sure it is a ‘very competitive’ environment. He will name his squad on Thursday.

Cape Town pools:

A: Fiji, Great Britain, Uruguay
B: Spain, Australia, Kenya
C: South Africa, Argentina, Ireland
D: New Zealand, France, USA