The Blitzbokke finished their home tournament in the HSBC Sevens Series in a disappointing sixth place, but coach Sandile Ngcobo says the team are still in a good place and confident they have what it takes to beat anyone.
Ngcobo added that it wasn’t just a case of the Blitzbokke playing badly, but also a case of the improved quality on show amongst all the teams.
After finishing the season opening Dubai event in first place, Ngcobo’s side had big hopes of winning on home soil, but it wasn’t to be, as defeats to Ireland and Australia saw them playing for fifth place against New Zealand – a game they also lost.
But Ngcobo says he knows what they did wrong and how to remedy the situation. Speaking to the media he said: “Possession was key, and we simply did not look after ours well enough.
“We were attacked at the breakdown, and we need to muscle up in that area as we lost too many balls there.
“But we showed we can put any team away over the past two weeks and that was something we tried to work towards in our preseason. Yes, today was not a great day, but we will have a good look at why and then make the necessary adaptations.
“It is very competitive and every match counts. We saw again this weekend how teams who were off the pace last week came good here and vice versa.
“Canada, for example, who finished 12th, showed they can beat anyone. This is going to be a very tough series to win.”
Looking ahead to the resumption of the Sevens’ Series in 2024 Ngcobo said his charges would be allowed a brief holiday before a training camp in January would be used to kick-start preparations for the 2024’s opening event at Perth in Australia.
“We will have a look at who is returning from injury and what the individual performances in Dubai and Cape Town contributed or not to the way we played.
“We did not suffer any serious injuries over the past two weekends and that bodes well to start with a strong squad next year.”
