READY TO GO AGAIN: Blitzboks veteran Siviwe Soyizwapi says the team had a frank discussion ahead of the Singapore Sevens.
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The Blitzboks cleared the air after last week’s mishap in Hong Kong, and have set their sights on finishing strongly at the Singapore Sevens with a fresh focus.
Ninth place in the first Far East tournament was not up to the standards of the Springbok Sevens, and with a sudden-death group stage in Singapore with Great Britain (7.26am start) and Argentina (10.44am) on Saturday, they know there is no room for error.
The South Africans face Britain on Saturday morning before taking on the defending series champions and current log-leaders Argentina, knowing that one loss could derail their plans of making a comeback.
According to veteran Siviwe Soyizwapi, they want to put in performances that do justice to the team, country and the badge on their chests.
“Each tournament has its own merits and you have to start all over again,” he said of starting afresh at the National Stadium, where the Blitzboks have won twice before. In 2019, they displayed some brilliant resilience to come from 19-0 down against Fiji to win the final 20-19.
“Same here in Singapore, where we arrived with a fresh focus. We sat down after the Hong Kong tournament, cleared the air and then left that behind. What happened in a previous tournament will count for nothing.
“You can’t assume things or aspects of play will go well just because it did so in an earlier tournament ... you need to start from scratch again.
“You might think there is doom and gloom, but there is not, as we will go into this weekend with a mindset that things can be done, that we have a system that works and a process that can be trusted.”
The Blitzboks will have to back up their talk with top performances, especially after setting out to turn the Hong Kong fortunes around – they’ve never won there – only to not even make the play-off matches.
The same fate could await them on Saturday if their defensive and attacking standards are not maintained.
They tackled poorly against Australia and New Zealand in the pool stages in Hong Kong. A repeat against the physical British and Argentinian players will likely condemn them to the same fate this weekend.
A series win is no longer on the cards, but if they can push through the challenge of Saturday and hit their straps, the South Africans can still shoot up the overall log to end in the top three.
It will also give them valuable momentum ahead of the Championship tournament in Los Angeles next month.