Powell on Blitzboks’ Toulouse horror-show: ‘Worst performance of my career’

South Africa’s Blitzboks coach Neil Powell has called the SA Sevens team’s latest performance in the World Rugby Sevens Series “the worst performance at a tournament in my career.”

The Blitzboks, so strong in the early part of the series, crashed out of the Toulouse tournament at the weekend before reaching the quarterfinals. It was the first time since 2013 that the Blitzboks didn’t make it to the last eight of the cup competition.

In pool play the Blitzboks lost to Ireland and Samoa, with their only wins coming against Spain, and later Japan. Then, in the ninth place semi-final, they also crashed to Scotland.

“This is the worst performance by the team since I took over, no doubt, and there is very little to be happy about in this performance we delivered here,” said Powell. “We dropped the team as individuals and the team did not function as a unit. That is very disappointing.”

Powell said he had identified the main problem in the team, namely that players were not able to execute their core duties.

“There were some good moments, but the mistakes are killing us at the moment,” he said.

“It is almost as if the players had forgotten what their roles and responsibilities are, and that put the system under pressure. Every player – and management as a matter of fact – will have to look at themselves seriously and ask why they are not contributing as they were earlier in the season.

“It is a tough series, and a number of teams did not perform as expected. New Zealand also did not get out of their pool and Argentina and Australia both lost their Cup quarter-finals. It is almost as if the teams are becoming a bit jaded. That certainly is making the World Series race very interesting.”

The Blitzboks (116) conceded their World Series lead to Argentina (118), who moved past them this weekend, but Powell remains positive that South Africa can win the gold for the fourth time with him as coach.

The squad will depart for the London Sevens tournament, which will happen this weekend, on Monday.