Back in Cape Town this weekend for the first time since the Sevens World Cup, the Blitzboks have put their disastrous campaign in the past as they look to continue their positive start under a new coaching staff. DYLAN JACK reports.
This weekend’s Cape Town Sevens will see the Blitzboks return to the Mother City since the Sevens World Cup in September.
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That straight-knockout tournament was largely overshadowed by the departure of former head coach Neil Powell and the emotion took its toll as the Blitzboks finished in a disappointing seventh place.
Now under Powell’s successors Sandile Ngcobo and former captain Philip Snyman, the Blitzboks are targeting their first trophy in Cape Town since 2015.
“What’s behind us is behind us,” forward James Murphy said. “Honestly, the World Cup hasn’t actually come up once. We are all focused on our new system under our new coaches. We have new goals and a lot of new young players.
“We are just focused on trying to get the basics right. You will see that we haven’t tried anything fancy. It’s all just doing the basics well and making sure that we look after the small things.
“We will be staying off social media, making sure that we are super-focused, trying not to think of anything else other than game one.”
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The Blitzboks are coming off their first Sevens Series tournament win under Ngcobo in Dubai last weekend, but aren’t getting too carried away with their early success.
“We are very excited for the weekend, but we aren’t looking too far ahead,” said Murphy. “It’s not about the finals or day two, but it’s all about game one on day one.
“There is lots to build on from Dubai. We were far from perfect in our eyes. From outside it looks perfect, but in our view, we have lots and lots to fix.
“We made a lot of unforced errors and lost concentration at certain moments of the game. Early on, we sometimes ended up chasing games, which we don’t want to be doing. We want to be scoring first, getting our best foot forward. Controlling games earlier will make things much easier for us. We want to hold onto the ball and make sure we are clinical, like we did in the playoffs.”
As tournament hosts, the Blitzboks have been placed in a challenging Pool A alongside Canada, France and old rivals Fiji.
The Springboks Sevens team will open their campaign against Canada on Friday night, before facing Fiji and France on day two on Saturday.
“Our focus is going to be on Canada in game one,” said Murphy. “Our focus will shift to Fiji once the Canada game is done. Fiji are great rivals, we have played them plenty of times, but we have to focus on Canada on Friday evening.”
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Photo: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images
