The Blitzboks have won the battle, and now it’s time for the “war” to claim Olympic gold.
That was the emotion from Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell after seeing his team come back from a pool-stage defeat to Australia earlier on Wednesday to showcase tremendous character to secure a comprehensive 22-5 quarter-final victory at the Deodoro Stadium.
The 12-5 loss in the final Pool B game would’ve felt that like a punch in the stomach for the South Africans after they had successfully negotiated day one on Tuesday without conceding a point and scoring 50 of their own.
Their confidence would’ve been severely dented, but they returned to the arena and tackled, ran and even kicked their way into the semi-finals as they took revenge on the Australians.
They are now just one game away from fighting for the gold medal as they face Great Britain in the second semi-final at 8pm SA time on Thursday evening. Fiji and giant-killers Japan – who accounted for New Zealand in the pool stages and knocked out France 12-7 in the last eight – will contest the first semi-final (7.30pm).
“Great Britain are a good side and for me, one of the in-form sides of the tournament (they are yet to lose a match). We must make sure that we’ve done our homework when we come back tomorrow and that we are ready for another war,” Powell said in a statement afterwards.
“(It was) definitely a lot better performance. I was happy with how the guys bounced back from the previous performance. And listen, if you go into the knockout stages, it’s always going to be tough – no matter who you play.
“Australia are a really quality side who keep working for 14 minutes, so I’m happy that we came out as the winning team.”
Captain Kyle Brown was arguably the Blitzboks’ best player in the quarter-final as he won a few turnovers on the ground and also created the opening try as he threw a perfect inside pass to put Rosko Specman over.
And the skipper didn’t leave it there, forcing his way through a few Aussie defenders to grab a vital five-pointer in the second half when the score was delicately poised at 10-5 to South Africa.
The fact that his team came through such a massive test, with everything on the line, didn’t come as a huge surprise to Brown.
“We spoke about it earlier and it was a mentality kind of thing, you know. I think we came into the previous game maybe a little undercooked, not expecting quite what we should (have). At the end of the day, you kind of like to get these wake-up calls – they’re never great for the confidence, but a real kick up the butt,” he said.
“We had a similar thing at the Cape Town Sevens (last December), losing to Kenya in our second pool game, and I think that really bound the team together.
“I hope it does a very similar thing (in Rio) – we are not going to bank on it. We will work as much as we can on the mentality of things to come back and fire on all cylinders tomorrow morning again.”
Great Britain, though, went through a tough Pool C – the “Pool of Death” – unbeaten as they got past New Zealand, Japan and Kenya. But what will give the South Africans extra confidence is the fact that the British side needed extra time to overcome Argentina in a remarkable quarter-final that ended 0-0 in regulation time.
Dan Bibby eventually broke through during extra time to end Argentina’s gallant display.
Team SA again slipped a few one-on-one tackles, which Powell acknowledged was “a concern”, especially as “that’s what it’s going to take for us to be successful tomorrow – to have a solid defensive line and a solid defensive performance”.
But now that the Blitzboks are in the home straight and can see that gold medal on the horizon – after years of preparation to get to this point – Brown and his team can’t wait to take the final step.
“They (Great Britain) are starting to run incredibly hot in this tournament, and it is going to be exciting game tomorrow,” the 29-year-old said.
“The important thing tonight was giving ourselves a chance to play for that medal – I think that’s essentially what the Olympics is all about. It is (about) getting closer and closer to the medal, and like I said to the guys after we won this game now, it was affording ourselves the opportunity to get on the field for another 14 minutes as opposed to sitting on the stands and watching other teams fight it out for it.”
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