Olympic Sevens semi-final: Blitzboks draw inspiration from Kolisi’s champions

Blitzboks coach Philip Snyman has outlined what his team need to do to beat hosts France and qualify for the Paris Olympic Games Sevens final.

The teams meet in one of the two semi-finals at the Stade de France on Saturday at 3.30pm for a place in the gold medal match. The winner will take on the winner of the second semi-final between Fiji and Australia.

The Blitzboks qualified for the semi-finals by shocking New Zealand late Thursday, after struggling to qualify for the quarterfinals. They lost to Ireland and New Zealand in pool play before hammering Japan to advance thanks to their strong points differential.

Snyman said Friday afternoon the Blitzboks would follow the example set by Siya Kolisi’s Springboks who beat France at the same venue 10 months ago in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals. On that day, three former Blitzboks players were in action for the Boks, namely Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Kwagga Smith.

‘Guts and determination’

“We all saw that game and how guts and determination brought the win,” said Snyman. “We are going to need that as well, apart from being clinical, especially on defence.

“France will be boosted by the massive crowd, but like the Springboks, we plan to use that as our motivation as well. They are a team that play well when they gather momentum and play with a lot of flair, but brutal defence is one way to stop that. That will be our aim tomorrow (Saturday).”

There was no regular day three action at the Sevens event on Friday as the opening ceremony brought a half to all sporting activities on the day and Snyman feels this will help his team on Saturday.

“Yesterday (Thursday) was tough and there are sore bodies, so we enjoyed the off day,” he said.

“We had two tough games against New Zealand and faced Ireland as well (in the last two days), so some respite was welcome. The guys could also relax a bit, but when we have a meeting in the late afternoon (Friday), it will be all in again. The focus will be on us and our game and how we achieve the right results for the team.”

Snyman thanked his compatriots from back home and those who also form part of Team South Africa for their well-wishes and support.

“I suppose we came in through the back door (to reach the semi-finals), but that did not stop people sending us heaps of well wishes and good luck messages. We will do our utmost not to disappoint them,” Snyman said.