Springbok Sevens coach Sandile Ngcobo described the Blitzboks’ performance in Los Angeles as unacceptable and completely devoid of effort after losses to Fiji and Samoa yesterday.

The Springbok Sevens squad remain among the top four contenders of the World Rugby Sevens Series at the halfway stage of the competition, but failed to fire on the second day of the LA Sevens at Dignity Health Sports Park.

New Zealand won their second tournament in the series by claiming the crown in California and look set to finish top of the series (they are on 107 points), with the top four sides automatically qualifying for the Olympic Games in France in 2024.

Argentina, the losing finalists, moved into second place level on 86 points with South Africa, while Fiji, the current Olympic champions, moved into fourth place on 84 points after finishing third in the USA.

To add to their woes, the Blitzboks suffered yet another spate of injuries during the tournament, limping off the Los Angeles pitch with only nine players fit to play.

“It was almost heartbreaking for me to watch from the sidelines as there was no effort at all from the players, and that hurts as the badge that we play for does not deserve that, neither do our supporters or our country,” said Ngcobo.

“It seemed that complacency crept in and that the guys were just going through the motions expecting things to happen, instead of going there and making it happen.

“A performance like this is disrespectful to our badge and to our country and we will have to have an extremely hard look at ourselves,” added Ngcobo, who said he will also do some introspection.

“I will have to ask myself why and how we delivered such a poor performance and how can we fix that,” he said. “Yes, we did play in the final in the previous tournament in Sydney, but that counted for nothing, we had to start at zero again, but we never did.”

Ngcobo said there was no fight in his squad and that was most disappointing, especially against Samoa.

“In that last game against Samoa, they kept giving us possession (from restarts) and we kept giving it away and missing tackles,” said Ngcobo.

“That was just a lack of effort and disrespect. The game for me is 20% physical and 80% mental and we just did not pitch mentally. The system deserves better, and we will have to regroup with Vancouver (Canada Sevens) only five days away.”

World Rugby Sevens Series standings after six tournaments:

1. New Zealand 107
2. Argentina 86
3. South Africa 86
4. Fiji 84
5. Samoa 81
6. Australia 77
7. France 76
8. USA 69
9. Ireland 68
10. Great Britain 47