By Lucky Vince Pienaar
The sad pattern set in the HSBC Sevens tournament in Perth has repeated itself in Vancouver. The Blitzboks started with a brilliant victory, then lost, and lost again, and then it didn’t matter anymore.
It was easy to feel positive after the way the Blitzboks outplayed New Zealand in the opening match.
Selvyn Davids kicked off the Blitzboks’s campaign with a well-worked try in the second minute. They kept turning the All Blacks around with grubber kicks and depended on their speed to get to the loose ball. It was beautiful to see. Selvyn Davids scored a second and rising star Tristan Leyds scored the third. For a while there, it looked as if the South Africans were going to have a great tournament. Well, that’s what it looked like, anyway.
The match against Great Britain was particularly important. The Blitzboks are set to play GBR in that fateful tournament in Monte Carlo in June –— and the winner will probably go to the Olympics, so this was a great test.
GBR scored two tries in three minutes and the Blitzboks seemed to lose interest. No more grubber kicks, no more chasing down the loose ball. Shilton van Wyk scored early in the second half and the game was on, but GBR scored a minute later and the game was lost. Impi Visser’s consolation try after it was too late was no consolation at all.
The Blitzboks needed to win the game against Ireland to stay in the hunt for the medals –— but either they forgot or they didn’t care. David Brits scored his first Blitzboks try in the first half, but in the second half, the South Africans just weren’t there. Rosko Specman scored in the final minute but by now the match –— and the Blitzboks’s medal hopes –— were well and truly lost.
Against Canada, Rosko Specman and David Brits scored tries and Impi Visser scored two, but it was all academic as the Blitzboks were in the fight to maintain their ninth position in the tournament.
What’s the matter with these Blitzboks?! In their final match against Australia, they seemed to come out of a deep slumber to produce sevens as good as their first match. Impi Visser, Shilton Vvan Wyk, David Brits and Rosko Specman all ran in tries to give the Blitzboks a sparkling victory –— giving the fans hope to go chasing after fool’s gold one more time.
Pool matches
Blitzboks (3 tries) 21-12 (1 try) New Zealand
Blitzboks (2 tries) 12-17 (3 tries) Great Britain
Blitzboks (2 tries) 10-22 (4 tries) Ireland
Play-off matches
Blitzboks (4 tries) 20-14 (2 tries) Canada
Blitzboks (4 tries) 24-7 (1 try) Australia.
Pictured above: Blitzboks.
Image source: X
