By Lucky Maree
There is nothing to suggest the Blitzboks will do any better in Vancouver than they did last weekend in Los Angeles.
Granted, coach Sandile Ngcobo is not obliged to tell anybody outside of the Sevens structures what his plans are for this weekend’s tournament, but to be honest, his comments have been pretty generic.
Losing coaches always say, “we let ourselves down” and “we didn’t stick to the game plan” and the most used phrase of all, “we’ll take a hard look at ourselves during the week”.
Thank you, coach, but we’ve heard all of that before. In fact, we started hearing that when New Zealand, Australia and Samoa came back after lockdown and that seems to be a long time ago.
The performance last week was no better or worse than, say, Spain or Uruguay.
The Blitzboks were there to compete, but just like Spain and Uruguay, they were not there to win. And win, they didn’t.
The Blitzboks have had some shocking tournaments lately, but in Los Angeles, they didn’t just lose, they were losers. Even the solitary match that they won against Canada was played with hanging shoulders.
The reality is, the Blitzboks team, as they stand (or lie down) at the moment, is not a top-level team. To think that a few practice moves and a few ra-ra-ra speeches are going to make them consistent winners is unrealistic.
When the Blitzboks succeed, they do so because they have imposed their structure on their opponents. They are not stronger than the New Zealanders, they are not faster than the Fijians, and they are not harder than the Argentinians or the Samoans. But they are smarter.
When the Blitzboks click, they are unbeatable. Nothing is more inspiring for a South African Sevens fan than watching a committed combination like Ricky Duarttee, Ronald Brown and Shilton van Wyk working in unison, frustrating the opposition with their moves. They elevate the game to a different level.
But they’ve lost that and that is what they must get back. But if they don’t do it this weekend, that’s not the end of the world. This weekend should be the first step towards the big prize.
Starting this weekend, everything they do should be about the Olympic Games.
Get to work, guys. Bring home a gold medal for South Africa.
Blitzboks vs France (10.14 pm Friday)
Blitzboks vs Japan (4.38 am Saturday).
Pictured above: Shilton van Wyk
Image source: @Blitzboks
