The Springbok Sevens team crashed out of contention at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 when Ireland beat them by 24-14 in their quarterfinal on Saturday, bringing an end to their quest of winning the Melrose Cup in Neil Powell’s last tournament as head coach.
It means the South Africans will face Argentina at 11:02am on Sunday in the Championship fifth-place playoffs, while Ireland will join New Zealand, Fiji and Australia in the Championship semifinals.
Where the Blitzboks were full of enterprise with the ball in hand on Friday night, the lack of possession against Ireland cost them dearly.
Not our night as #RWC7s ends in disappointment in Cape Town, but we go again tomorrow.??
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) September 10, 2022
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Full match report: https://t.co/CJgRCV81kx#BestOfUs pic.twitter.com/K7erIUcRwi
Powell said he was not disappointed that they could not get the result, but rather that they were poor in the clinical execution of what they wanted to achieve in the match.
“It is all about momentum which you create by using your opportunities. We did not do that because we did not use those opportunities and then you are going to find it hard to pull that game back, like we saw tonight,” said Powell, who also felt his team’s lack of execution cost them.
“The basic errors from players tonight were not expected, like not finding touch, not winning lineouts, throwing passes into touch – those were errors that were not expected from the players, but that happened unfortunately. They are normally a lot more clinical in the execution of their skill sets.”
Powell said they have very little option but to bounce back when they face Argentina in the bottom half of the competition on Sunday.
“We will have to come back tomorrow and show that the badge and the jersey still mean something to the team,” he said.
“We will have to do our homework for the Argentina match and come out and do the work. They are a tough team that are hard to break down and they keep fighting until the end, so we need to make sure we play for 14 minutes and be a lot more clinical.”
Despite making a hash of the kick-off, Ireland drew first blood after turning over possession in their own 22, working their way upfield and with the Blitzboks running out of defenders, Mark Roche went over next to the uprights. He also added the conversion to silence the big crowd after two minutes.
There was more drama for the South African supporters when Ireland looked to have scored a minute later, but the TMO judged that a South African defender was played without the ball.
Working their way back up the field, the Blitzboks looked to grow in confidence, only to squander a few opportunities through over-eagerness – first a wild pass by Brown into touch, then Muller du Plessis conceding a penalty while hot on the attack.
The duo righted their errors though, when JC Pretorius pounced on a lost Irish lineout, the ball went wide to Brown who put Du Plessis over. Brown’s conversion levelled the scores at 7-7 going into the break.
Two minutes into the second half, Ireland struck again when the Blitzboks lost a lineout in their own 22 and Harry McNulty capitalised, and the dust had hardly settled before the Irish were in for a third try, with Jordan Conroy after a pass by the South Africans went astray.
Ireland then sealed the victory with Conroy’s second try as the host nation failed to get their hands on the ball at all during the second half, which ended up ruling them out of contention.
The final say belonged to the Blitzboks when Mfundo Ndhlovu went over after the hooter, but unfortunately for the throngs of South African supporters – and for Powell – it was too little, too late.
Afterwards, Brown bemoaned the fact that the South Africans failed to execute their game plan against an Ireland side that kept them under pressure.
“It was not the way we wanted to end, I think Ireland kept us under pressure and they took their opportunities,” said Brown.
“We had a plan and didn't execute it, actually. We weren't accurate in the plan that we wanted to do. I think Ireland kept the ball really nicely, they played off our mistakes and at this level if you keep the ball for four or five phases you will walk over the line eventually.
“I think they kept the ball really well, we couldn't steal it and they were clinical at the breakdowns, so well done to Ireland.
"It’s always sore losing in front of a home crowd, especially this one. The World Cup is quite big for us, so it’s disappointing considering all the preparation and hard work that went into it. But as a team we do like to bounce back and we take each game as it comes and will definitely focus on Argentina.”