Blitzboks crash out of World Cup Sevens

Springbok Sevens reached the end of the road in the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens when they succumbed to 24-14 to Ireland in their quarter-final on Saturday.

The defeat has brought an end to the Blitzboks' mission of winning the Melrose Cup under Neil Powell™s last tournament as head coach.

Boks will take on Argentina in the Championship fifth-place playoffs, Sunday afternoon. Ireland, Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia are through to the Championship semi-finals.

Powell™s charges lacked possession against Ireland which led to their defeat. And though Powell indicated that he œwas not disappointed that they could not get the result, he lamented a poor clinical finishing from his side.

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œIt is all about momentum which you create by using your opportunities. We did not do that because we did not use those opportunities and then you are going to find it hard to pull that game back, like we saw tonight, said Powell, who also felt his team™s lack of execution cost them.

œThe basic errors from players tonight were not expected, like not finding touch, not winning line-outs, throwing passes into touch - those were errors that were not expected from the players, but that happened unfortunately. They are normally a lot more clinical in the execution of their skill sets.

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Powell said they have very little option but to bounce back when they face Argentina in the bottom half of the competition on Sunday.

œWe will have to come back tomorrow and show that the badge and the jersey still mean something to the team, said Powell.

œWe will have to do our homework for the Argentina match and come out and do the work. They are a tough team that are hard to break down and they keep fighting until the end, so we need to make sure we play for 14 minutes and be a lot more clinical.