Springbok Sevens coach Sandile Ngcobo heaped praise on his players after the Blitzboks made it into the last four in Australia, where they will face Fiji in the semi-finals of the HSBC Sydney Sevens on Sunday.
The Blitzboks beat Uruguay (28-12) and New Zealand (17-14) in their Pool B matches before they knocked Ireland out of the Cup competition with a 26-12 victory in the quarter-finals on Saturday morning to keep their title hopes alive.
Against the All Blacks Sevens, the Blitzboks needed a late penalty goal by Ricardo Duarttee to seal top spot in the pool, and they built on that with a clinical performance over Ireland.
It was a huge improvement from last weekend in Hamilton, where the Blitzboks lost both matches in the knock-out stages of the HSBC NZ Sevens. One of those defeats was against Ireland and for Ngcobo, their performance in Sydney against the same opponent was personal.
“Everybody agreed after Hamilton that we cannot be happy with those performances and that we needed to step up and represent the badge and all it stands for with everything we had,” he said.
“The guys did that today and I am very proud. The performances today were for everyone that contributed to this effort and also for the injured players, guys like Selvyn Davids who returned home, Siviwe Soyizwapi and Ryan Oosthuizen, who got injured here.
“This performance also represented the guys back home in Stellenbosch and it was pleasing to see the effort. I am very proud.”
Ngcobo said the way the players implemented the plan for each match was exactly what the coaching staff asked them to do: “We reminded them about the system and how that overrides any individual effort and we saw that out there.
“Defending like we did against New Zealand with six players on the field showed that the guys took it personal and trusted each other, that is one of the main ingredients in our system.”
The coach said they wanted a strong start against Ireland, which is exactly what he got as Christie Grobbelaar scored twice in the first five minutes to put the Blitzboks in control at 12-0.
“We wanted to score first and keep the pressure from there onwards and it worked out like that,” said Ngcobo.
“We have a very good mix in the squad currently and that helps in our execution. The senior players in the squad are very experienced and keep things together, while the younger players bring massive energy, and we got the rewards from that.
“I told the young guys to go out and play their game, that is why they were picked and they responded very well.”
With regards to Sunday’s semi-final against Fiji, Ngcobo said it will be important for the players to rest well and come back with the same mindset that highlighted their performances on Saturday.
The semi-final against Fiji will be at 07h28 (SA time)on Sunday. New Zealand and France will contest the other semi-final.
Issued by SA Rugby Communications
