Neil Powell was left unhappy with the way the Blitzboks performed in their Pool A loss to the USA in the Singapore Sevens on Saturday, which brought their 36-game unbeaten run to an end.

The Blitzboks will face Fiji in the Cup quarter-finals of the HSBC Singapore Sevens on Sunday after finishing second in Pool A of the tournament, played at the National Stadium in very humid conditions.

The second place was due to defeat by USA in the last play of their final pool match on Saturday, which not only snapped the Blitzboks’ unbeaten run of 36 matches leading up to the match, but the 12-7 defeat also ended an eight-game losing streak to South Africa for USA.

Springbok Sevens coach Powell was not happy about the overall performance of the day.

“We always knew that we would lose somewhere along the road, it was going to happen sometime or another,” said Powell.

“We also felt that it did not matter against who we conceded defeat, as long as it was not against ourselves, but a better team on the day. Sadly, we did lose against ourselves today.

“We never managed more than two phases on attack and when you concede so much possession as we did against a team that is so effective on the counter attack as the USA, you will be in trouble. We learned that lesson today.”

Powell said the squad will have time to reflect on their shortcomings on the opening day and will have to come back stronger in the morning: “We did not play as well as we could and never really got going. So, tomorrow’s focus would be on ourselves and not Fiji.”

They face Fiji at 6:50am (SA time) on Sunday. Australia and Argentina will clash in the first quarter-final (6:28am) before New Zealand and Samoa (7:12am) and USA and Ireland (7:34am) also battle for a place in the last four.

Head-to-head stats:

South Africa have won three of their last four matches against Fiji in Singapore. In 2017, they won 29-14 in a fifth-place semi-final; in 2018 they won 12-10 in the Cup semi-final and in 2019 won 20-19 in the final, after losing to Fiji in their pool match by 17-7. The last time these teams met was in Los Angeles in 2020, when South Africa won the final 29-24.

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