Blitzboks could only play what was in front of them, says Powell

THE Springbok Sevens team clinched their first World Series title since 2018 after defeating Great Britain 24-12 on Sunday to win the Edmonton title in Canada.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this series featured only two tournaments instead of 10. Earlier this month, World Rugby also announced the cancellation of the Singapore and Cape Town tournaments.

A host of the world’s Sevens heavyweights like Olympic champions Fiji,

Australia and New Zealand did not send teams to the event because of travel restrictions.

South Africa were one of the 12 men’s teams, with six of those sides having featured at the Tokyo Olympics.

Last weekend, the Blitzboks also claimed the tournament title in Vancouver.

In the final of the Edmonton event, Muller du Plessis and Siviwe Soyizwapi both bagged a brace to help secure a comfortable victory for the South Africans.

Robbie Ferguson and Tom Bowen scored Britain’s tries.

En route to the final, the Blitzboks - who were unbeaten in the 12 games they played - cruised past Mexico, Hong Kong and Canada to finish top of their pool on Saturday.

They reached this weekend’s final thanks to a 33-7 defeat of Kenya in the semi-finals, after a 46-0 smashing of Hong Kong in the last eight.

Great Britain finished second in the series standings, ahead of Kenya, who reached the podium again in Edmonton by overcoming Canada 33-14 to finish in third place. Canada and the USA placed fourth and fifth, respectively.

Blitzbok coach Neil Powell said the fact that some of the big teams did not travel to Canada did take some sheen away from winning the series, but added that they could only play what was in front of them.

“You cannot deny that those three teams – having won gold, silver and bronze at the recent Olympics – would have enhanced the competition, but there was nothing we could do about that,” he said.

“We could only go out and deliver the best performances we are capable of, and I think we did that very well and for that I am massively proud. We still played against some very good teams out there.

“I would have loved having them here in that they would have tested us in different areas of play – for example, Fiji are great at kick-offs, and it would have been interesting to see how our younger guys coped with that.

“Those teams protect the ball very well too, so it is not as much the standards – which I thought were good at these two tournaments – but rather the variety of playing styles that I would have liked for our players to experience.”