Coach: Blitzboks’ job is far from done

Head coach Philip Snyman said the Blitzboks aren’t getting ahead of themselves after powering into today’s semi-finals of the Cape Town Sevens.

The Blitzboks beat Ireland by 36-7 in their pool opener yesterday morning and followed that up with a 29-5 win over Argentina in the last game of the day, setting up a cup semi-final against Spain at 13:56.

“The big improvement came from ball possession and our one on one defence was much better, with a high percentage of tackles completed today,” said Snyman after the victory over Argentina.

“Our units functioned very well too. The forwards managed to get the ball to our dangerous playmakers and they executed very well.”

Snyman said the players stuck to their tasks in both matches: “Everybody had a good understanding of what they needed to do and executed those roles very well, so I am very happy with day one’s efforts.

“We created a lot of pressure and that gave us turnovers, especially in the last game against Argentina.”

According to Snyman, today’s semi-final against Spain will be another challenge and they will have to reset to zero after the European team, who were the runners up in Dubai last weekend, also won both their pool matches.

“We are not getting ahead of ourselves because we are in the semi-finals,” said Snyman.

“There was a good energy in the group all week, despite the fact that we lost two experienced players from the Dubai squad. So overall there is a positive mindset all around and that showed today.

“That is done now, we have achieved our aim to finish top of the pool, but the work is far from completed.

“We have to come back tomorrow even better and make sure we are clinical in everything we do. If we can maintain our ball possession tomorrow like we did today and the tackle completion remains the same as well, we will have a good day.”

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