While the emotional scenes played themselves out on our television screens late on Sunday night as the Blitzboks became not only the Kings of New York, but also the World SVNS Series champions, it was also a reminder of how World Rugby has turned the fun sport into a convoluted mess.
The Blitzboks were exceptional during the six tournament phase and were crowned champions in Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver and New York, giving them two more points than Fiji, whose worst finish was third, but only won one tournament out of six.
And while World Rugby will hail the competitive nature of the Series and the close finish that came down to the final match of the New York tournament, there was a weird feeling about the entire series this season that still doesn’t sit well.
One former international coach called it “so vanilla” in the way it has extracted all the colour, fun and happiness from a series and turned it into a bland rinse and repeat series that has no room for error.
South Africa played Fiji, for instance, in every pool round bar the last two tournaments, where they met them in the final in New York. To play the same team over and over again isn’t really appetising - not to the players and certainly not to the fans, nevermind the entire argument about wasting developmental opportunities.
And lo and behold, the Sevens World Series champs are not the World Champs. Or so World Rugby wants you to believe.
“We were led to believe the Series was everything, now the Championship is everything,” one team official remarked to me recently.
Because yes, while the Series is supposed to be the crown jewel, there are three “championship” tournaments with a few extra lower ranked sides. These take place over the next few months in Hong Kong, Spain and France, and then the World Champion will only be crowned.
So you can be World Series champion - like Argentina was last year - and not the World Champion. Last year South Africa won a one-off tournament in LA and were crowned World Champions, even though Argentina was the most consistent team on the circuit.
This all leaves a very bad taste and asking fans to work this out makes little sense. The Springbok Sevens have little time to celebrate, because they play in Hong Kong on 19 April again.
But that is the negative, and World Rugby will continue to believe they have unlocked the magic in a series that had its issues, but never was as complicated, and confusing as it now is.
Let’s rather concentrate on the positives though. Philip Snyman came in when the Blitzboks were ninth on the World Series log and in the first season managed to take them to a bronze medal at the Olympics.
He then got them to be crowned “World champions” by winning in Los Angeles, and now has taken the team to greater heights with their win in the Series.
All this came from months of hard work behind the scenes, a lot more planning than normal in terms of mitigating injuries, and increasing the depth in the squad. For that he should take a bow. He deserves all the plaudits.
“This was special, not because of the execution of play, but the heart and intensity to play for each other that was shown out there,” said Snyman after the win..
“They showed what Springbok Sevens stand for and played for that jersey, and as a coach, you cannot be prouder of such an effort.”
And that is just it. Anyone who has been close to the squad knows what a tight-knit bunch they are and how they play for each other. They are certainly an embodiment of South Africa’s greatest strengths, working together towards a common goal.
And this season the depth was increased and the team culture took the squad to new heights.
“The senior players bought in and started to contribute, and every new player coming in had the backing of support of the senior guys as well and that made it possible to continue with that plan.
“We are not done yet. We need to keep growing and improving. We will have a rest now but will come back as determined for the three tournaments of the World Championship.”
It is hard to argue with any of the above and while the Springboks are the best side in the world, the Blitzboks are arguably the best example of South Africa’s combined strengths. Against Fiji they were smaller in size, but never in heart.
And that makes all the difference.
So while the Sevens circuit has regressed to be something that is neither satisfying nor a fan’s delight anymore, it is what we have got.
At least we all know the Blitzboks will always give their all, and will always represent the best of us.