If the Blitzbokke are to emerge victorious in the Vancouver leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series this weekend then they will need to urgently address their lack of discipline that has cost them dearly in recent tournaments.
Neil Powell’s men again missed out on the coveted trophy at the Las Vegas tournament, largely due to conceding a plethora of penalties and yellow cards against Australia in the semi-final.
Powell had stated that the issue would be sorted out in the lead up to Las Vegas after falling victim to the same ill-discipline in the previous two tournaments in Sydney and Wellington.
Had the Blitzbokke managed to play in the Wellington final with a full team on the field then they could have beaten New Zealand on their home turf and had it not been for a similar incident in Sydney a week later then the South Africans could have been comfortably leading the overall standings instead of lying in second place five points adrift of Fiji.
While Powell vowed that there would be severe consequences for repeat offenders and those players that continue to give away unnecessary penalties and yellow cards, Blitzbokke captain Kyle Brown believes that Vancouver will offer his team an opportunity to rectify the wrongs of their ways of late.
“It was about six or seven penalties and a yellow card in that game against Australia which means that you are not going to see yourself into a final. It is going to be difficult to win any game let alone a tournament if we are going to play like that,” said Brown.
“It is a couple of small things and we did address it which will make us more disappointed because it was the focus of the week leading to Las Vegas. We will have a look at it again going into Vancouver.”
Brown, though, is optimistic that his team will be better for the painful lessons learnt and has been impressed with how they have managed to keep up with Fiji. - The Star