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‘They just wanted it more’: Blitzboks miss out on Cup quarters again
By Finn Morton
South Africa will not play in the men’s Cup quarter-finals in Los Angeles. For the second tournament on the bounce, the Blitzboks will battle it out for ninth place at best.
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After winning the first SVNS Series stop of the season in Dubai, South Africa have slowly fallen away as they’ve struggled to replicate their heroics from earlier in the campaign.
Playing at LA’s Dignity Health Sports Park, the South Africans were beaten in pool play by heavyweights Argentina and Ireland – the two top teams on the overall standings.
While they managed to get the better of Spain 22-19 in their final match on Day Two in the City of Angels, it wasn’t enough to see them through to the knockout rounds.
“It was a tough weekend. It didn’t go our way, we’re out of the Cup and it’s tough. It’s a tough pill to swallow,” captain Selvyn Davids told RugbyPass.
“The Spain game… it’s just one positive out of the weekend. I think we still have a game left so we’re just going to try and build on that.
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“The teams we’ve played are great teams. By the looks of it, they just wanted it more than us and that’s why they got the results. They played wonderful rugby.
“That’s just part of the game. We just have to suck it up and come back stronger.”
Walking off the field on Friday night after their first loss in Los Angeles, veteran Rosko Specman walked past the SVNS LAX trophy and touched it as he walked by.
This is a team that expects excellence from themselves, and their supporters want to see their rugby heroes back at the top of the sevens world as well.
But it just hasn’t gone to plan, and it was painfully obvious how much that hurt.
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Away from the watchful eyes of supporters, the Blitzboks huddled up down the tunnel after their win over Spain. You could see the disappointment on their faces.
Captain Davids was the same. In the words of the skipper: “It’s tough to disappoint the jersey. It’s quite emotional just to think about it.
“This jersey definitely means a lot to us. There are millions of boys back in South Africa that want to wear this jersey. We’re the privileged ones to wear this jersey,” Davids said.
“Just for us to know that this is a privilege to wear this jersey, and not just something you’ll get every day.
“But, yeah, it just didn’t go our way. We always try to leave it out there for the jersey and for the people back home and even all across the world.
“We’re a bit disappointed that the result didn’t go our way but like I said, the jersey definitely means a lot to us.”
South Africa finished ninth in Vancouver last Sunday after getting the better of Australia. For the second week in a row, they’ll be vying for the same placing here in Los Angeles.
What a try-stopper from Connor O’Sullivan 🔥🇮🇪#HSBCSVNS | #HSBCSVNSLAX pic.twitter.com/wmZNHbjPmg
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) March 2, 2024
“We showed a few glimpses in the past two tournaments of what we can do. We just have to stay consistent – I think that’s our biggest problem at the moment.
“We just can’t keep on telling ourselves we’re in the building phase. It’s been two years now.
“There are a few new players, we are trying a few combinations, but there’s a lot of senior guys so we just have to step it up a bit and just try to stick to the plan that the coaches give us.
“We just have to keep on working for each other… there’s a few of us that are not on the same page and if we’re not the whole 13, or the 12 that’s going onto the pitch, if one of us is not on the same page as the other 11, things can go wrong like it did this past two weekends.”
It’s not complicated.
With Neil Powell as head coach the Blitzboks were in the finals more than half of the time, and won more than half of those appearances.
Since then it has been hard to watch.