Blitzboks need a big one against Samoa

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Coach Neil Powell says the Blitzboks must beat Samoa convincingly to book a place in the Cup quarter-finals of the France Sevens.

But, SA may have to do so without playmaker Dewald Human, who will have to pass a head injury assessment before Saturday’s 12:22pm clash at Stade Ernst-Wallon.

Powell says his troops placed themselves in this predicament on Friday with a shock 22-12 defeat by Ireland, before beating Spain 27-7 to get back into Pool D contention.

READ: Blitzboks bounce back with Davids double

After the first day, Samoa are top of pool D with two wins, while SA have a plus-11 points difference and Ireland a minus-4 difference.

If Spain beat Ireland on Saturday, the Blitzboks will still have to beat Samoa, but the points difference will not be important.

If Ireland win, the South Africans will know exactly how much they need to beat Samoa to make it into the top eight.

“It can easily come down to points difference, so we have no option but to beat Samoa,” said Powell.

“We made it hard for ourselves against Ireland, where we just made too many errors, to be honest. We conceded a silly yellow card, we allowed ourselves to be forced into touch and we knocked on passes.

“That was just not good enough. It was not the ideal start. We had too many soft moments and did not hang on to our ball and they made us pay.

“We played much better against Spain,” the SA boss added. “We managed to build up nice momentum and that resulted in a good win for us. It still was not perfect, at least it got us back on track.”

MORE: Unlucky start for Blitzboks in Toulouse

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Devin Hermanus