Mixed fortunes: Bok Women ninth; Blitzboks sixth

Mike Greenaway|Published 10 months ago

The Springboks Sevens women team beat the US twice at the Singapore Sevens. The Boks beat the American 14-12 in the group stages and 5-0 in the ninth-place play-off. In their other games, they lost 49-0 to France, seen here; lost 34-7 to Japan, and beat Spain 26-14. | AFP

Mike Greenaway

The Blitzboks lost their fifth-place play-off against Argentina in the Singapore Sevens to end a weekend when they did plenty of good but ultimately failed when it mattered most.

The South Africans enjoyed an unbeaten run in their three pool matches but lost both of their play-offs, going down by 29-24 to Australia in the quarter-final on Saturday – with their opponents clinching the victory with a golden try in extra-time – before Sunday morning’s second successive close result against Argentina (14-10).

That result earned the South Americans the World Series title. The Blitzboks had led by 10-0 at the break after first-half tries by Tiaan Pretorius and Siviwe Soyizwapi, but both conversions were unsuccessful.

The Argentinians then came back with a spirited second-half display, scoring the match-winning try in the final minute to condemn the South Africans to a second consecutive sixth-place finish at the end of the league phase of the season.

Coach Philip Snyman said: “It’s a concern that we were good enough to play in the semi-final but couldn’t kick on.

“Starting with me as coach, we’ll take a hard look at ourselves and try to get the players into a good mental state for the rest of the season. At the moment, when the pressure is on, we do things out of character and then results go against us.”

Australia’s Hayden Sargeant is gang-tackled by the Blitzboks during their quarter-final clash at the HSBC Sevens Series at the National Stadium in Singapore. | AFP

The Blitzboks finished in seventh position on the overall season log after a mid-season slump, but still have a lot to play for in the Grand Finale in Madrid later this month. They will then set their sights on qualifying for the Paris Olympic Games in Monaco next month.

Meanwhile, one try was enough for the Springbok Women’s Sevens team as they finished Singapore Sevens on a winning note. They secured ninth position with their second victory of the weekend over the USA.

The 5-0 victory over the USA early yesterday morning meant that the South Africans finished the tournament with three wins and two defeats from their five games, their second-best performance of the season.

Maria Tshiremba scored what turned out to be the match-winner just before the break against the USA, and the Bok Women then threw everything they had into the last seven minutes to remain ahead on the scoreboard.

Renfred Dazel (head coach) was very happy with his team’s overall performance on the weekend.

“I’m stoked with their performance, especially with how they stood up for this team and for our system – some of them even playing out of position, like Ayanda Malinga playing at prop for the first time.”