ON THE BALL: When Sevens fails, rugby fails. Sevens rugby is in trouble and it needs help – right from the very top. There is Olympic gold at stake, warns Lucky Maree.
Surprise, surprise! In Los Angeles, the Blitzboks Express went hurtling off the rails and into a bridge. In Vancouver, the train fell off the bridge into the canyon and took the bridge with it.
The frustration in the Blitzboks camp reached the level where the players started picking fights with other players. When the Canadians provoked the South Africans, the South Africans jumped right into the trap. While the Canucks need to be reminded that not all sport is an ice hockey match, it was not necessary for the Blitzboks to respond. Even captain Siviwe Soyiswape also got involved in shirt tugging and finger-wagging. And this was in the match for the 13th place play-off.
After last week’s tournament, South Africa has dropped to seventh in the World Sevens rankings.
In four weeks the circuit moves to Hong Kong, the spiritual home of Sevens, but there is nothing to indicate that the Blitzboks’ backslide will not continue.
Who knows where they’ll be by the time the Summer Olympics in France comes around in July 2024?
A famous lesson to be learnt is about the girl who says to her mom: “Mom, I’ve had an accident. I’m expecting a baby.” The mom replies: “You had unprotected sex with a stranger you met at a club. What did you expect? A big screen TV?”
To blame coach Sandile Ncgobo for the team’s failure is like blaming Wayne Pivac for the failure of Wales Rugby. How was firing Pivac and giving the job to Warren Gatland going to make any difference? No wonder Gatland, who is looking more and more like a rabbit staring into a hunting lamp, has said (in public): “If I’d known what was going on, I would not have taken the job.”
There are only a few Rassie Erasmus’ in this world. Sevens doesn’t have a Rassie who can pull the game out of the quicksand that it is sinking into. Why does the South African Rugby Board not take a hand?
Why Sevens is treated like the stepchild of South African rugby, remains a mystery. Why is Sevens not promoted at schools as the primary rugby game before the kids progress to 15s? Sevens is easier to play, all the players are involved all the time and it is much simpler to learn and to coach. But that is a question for another day.
If Sevens fails, rugby fails. Sevens is not a little sideline somewhere that a few fast and nimble guys play for fun. It is a core branch of the sport. Somebody, somewhere must recognise that and has to step up. Gatland can’t fix Wales. Ngcobo can’t fix the Blitzboks.
To say that Rassie, the man who performed miracles with the Springboks, must do the same for Sevens, is unrealistic. He’s got a World Cup to win.
But somebody has to take charge and make a massive, positive intervention and it has to happen now. There is Olympic gold at stake.
Pictured above: The hapless Sevens coaching team in Vancouver
Image source: @blitzboks
