Blitzboks to ‘step up’ and over Scotland

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Coach Neil Powell and skipper Siviwe Soyizwapi say the unbeaten Blitzboks must lift their game against Scotland on Saturday when the teams clash in the pool B decider at the Commonwealth Games.

The South African men’s sevens side have already qualified for the Games quarter-finals after beating Tonga (36-5) and Malaysia (46-0) in Birmingham on Friday. The final pool game between SA and Scotland is at 1:18pm on Saturday.

The Blitzboks were in control for most of both their games on Friday and did what was needed to progress to the knockout phase of the competition, scoring 14 tries in total on the opening day, and conceded only one try.

Powell said: “We had a slow start in the first game against Malaysia, and we asked the guys to make a step up against Tonga, especially in terms of physicality, and I think they did that really well.

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“Unfortunately, we conceded the one try, which was disappointing because we pride ourselves on our defence, but I think it was a massive step-up from the first game, and hopefully we can improve on that when we play Scotland.

“The last time we played Scotland, we lost and hopefully we learned something from that experience. For us to top our pool, we thought it was probably going to come down to this game, so we already had a look at them and hopefully the guys will be up for it tomorrow.”

Soyizwapi added: “We are happy with the results, but we will have to take a look at both games as we made a few errors and it wasn’t the clinical performance we were looking for, but it was a good day and we have something to build on with a lot of positives.”

However, in the Blitzboks’ first match against Tonga since 2019, Mfundo Ndhlovu was stretchered off the field after a dangerous tackle by John Ika – who was red carded – and Powell is doubtful of his availability going forward in the competition.

“We would have loved to get Mfundo onto the park a bit more as he recently returned from a serious injury, but it looks like he took a bad shot to his jaw, and he will probably be out for the rest of the tournament, although we’ve not seen the final medical assessment yet,” added Powell.

MORE: Blitzboks blank Malaysia in Games opener

Photo: @Blitzboks/Twitter

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Devin Hermanus