Blitzboks: It’ll be silly to blow our second chance

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Assistant coach Philip Snyman has admitted the Blitzboks were thrown a lifeline to progress to the playoffs of the Hong Kong Sevens, but they need to use that against Fiji on Sunday.

Narrow pool defeats – by Great Britain (12-10) and France (19-17) – for South Africa on Saturday would normally have a team missing out on the quarter-finals, but Uruguay did the Blitzboks a massive favour by beating the British.

This resulted in SA finishing second in Pool B due to a better points differential than Team GB and the South Americans, and the Blitzboks now face Pool C winners Fiji in the Cup quarter-finals of the competition (kick-off 5:50am).

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“We did not play well on Saturday,” Snyman said. “We are in the playoffs despite today’s mishaps, so we do get another chance and it will be silly not to make the best out of that.

“There were more than enough positives from the French game. We had one bad bounce and a final pass that did not go our way and affected the final result, but the effort was there and that was what we are looking for.”

A crucial takeaway from Saturday was that the South Africans need to play as a unit, Snyman added: “We have to take that lesson to heart. You cannot play alone; we need to do this as a team to be successful.

“The players must use the structure provided and buy into that. If we do that on Sunday, we will have a chance in the tournament.”

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Photo: @Blitzboks/Twitter

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Devin Hermanus