Newly appointed Springbok Sevens coaches Sandile Ngcobo and Philip Snyman will be feeling the heat early in their tenure as their team slipped to an eighth-place finish in Hong Kong.

The season opener was highly disappointing for the South African side as they were lucky to scrape through to the quarterfinals in the first place after losses to France (19-17) and Great Britain (12-10) in the pool stage.

In their quarterfinal match against eventual finalists Fiji, the Blitzboks lost 12-7 before completing the weekend with another close 19-12 loss against Argentina in the fifth-place semifinal. It was an unprecedented four losses in a weekend.

“There were many missed opportunities and that hurt as we worked hard to create those, only to not capitalise on them,” said Ngcobo.

“It is our first tournament together and the players might not be on top of their roles and responsibilities yet, but that is something we can work on and improve. We just did not finish games off.”

Ngcobo said the side would be better for the experience and admitted that it was not the ideal start to his coaching tenure.

“We need to take a hard look at ourselves, players as well as management, admit our mistakes and make sure we rectify them,” he said.

“We need to do the basics first and then we can express ourselves and show our individual brilliance. This is the level we want to compete at, and then to not perform hurts. We will be better after this.”

Siviwe Soyizwapi of South Africa during the match between South Africa and Fiji on Day 3 of the HSBC Hong Kong Sevens at Hong Kong Stadium on 6 November 2022 in So Kon Po, Hong Kong. (Photo: David Van Der Sandt / Gallo Images)

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Aussie gold

The final that saw reigning World Sevens Series titleholders Australia face off against Sevens World Cup champions Fiji was a match that did not disappoint.

Needing a try in the dying seconds to claim their first Hong Kong Sevens’ title since 1988, Australia’s Nathan Lawson carried two Fijian defenders over the tryline with him to plot down in the corner to take the score to 20-17.

It was an incredible comeback win: Australia had been trailing Fiji 12-0 when two tries by Henry Hutchison on either side of halftime brought Aussies back into the match.

Australia failed to convert any of their tries and had to rely on outscoring the flying Fijians three tries to four.

“It’s quite surreal that we’re even here,” said Australia coach John Manenti after the encounter.

The Wallaby Sevens lost to Samoa on Saturday, 5 November, and needed a win against the All Black Sevens in their final group stage match to get through to the knockouts.

Australia then saw off Ireland in the quarterfinals and France in the semifinals on Sunday, 6 November.

“We had to fight, we lost against Samoa … We fought hard and beat the Kiwis. We had to fight against the French, we had to fight against the Irish,” said Manenti. “All of a sudden, we’re in the game, we’ve got a minute to go and the boys owned up. It was really special.”

It was the first time in the past six editions of the Hong Kong tournament that Fiji failed to leave with gold medals around their necks.

Bleak Blitzboks

Blitzboks forward Impi Visser said the team did not use their lifeline of getting into the quarterfinals, where they were beaten by Fiji.

“Normally, if you lose two pool games, you are out of the knock-outs, but we got lucky yesterday when some results went our way,” said Visser.

“So, to not make use of that opportunity today is very disappointing. It is not a nice feeling to end the tournament like this.”

Visser said the opportunities missed against Fiji in the quarterfinal frustrated the Blitzboks, adding that there is no time feeling sorry for themselves.

“We had six or seven opportunities to score and did not use them, that is frustrating,” he said. “We need to have an honest look at ourselves after this performance and make sure we bounce back stronger. The margins are tight, but giving away possession is just not good enough.

“We need to get better; we are not playing at our potential and that is so frustrating. We are letting ourselves down. We need to start working as soon as we get back home as the next tournament is only weeks away. We cannot accept this as our standard.” DM

The next Sevens World Series tournament is from 1 to 3 December in Dubai.