Cape Town — For Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell, the biggest disappointment in their 12-7 defeat to the USA in their last Pool A game of the Singapore Sevens on Saturday was the fact that they lost against themselves.
The Americans snapped the South Africans’ 36-match winning streak with a clinical performance. The defending World Sevens Series champions, however, produced an uncharacteristic display tainted by errors.
The defeat in their last pool game set the Blitzboks — who ended second in Pool A — up for a Cup quarter-final spot against Fiji.
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With the victory, the USA also ended their eight-match losing streak against the South Africans.
“We always knew that we would lose somewhere along the road, it was going to happen sometime or another,” Powell said.
“We also felt that it did not matter against who we conceded defeat, as long as it was not against ourselves, but a better team on the day. Sadly, we did lose against ourselves today.
36 wins on the spin for South Africa
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) April 9, 2022
And then @USARugby went toe-to-toe in the final match of day one in Singapore...#HSBC7s | #Singapore7s pic.twitter.com/ZqqnVQO2ak
“We never managed more than two phases on attack and when you concede so much possession as we did against a team that is so effective on the counter attack as the USA, you will be in trouble. We learned that lesson today.”
Powell added his squad will have time to reflect on their shortcomings on the opening day before they face the Sevens powerhouse in the play-offs.
“We did not play as well as we could and never really got going. So tomorrow's focus would be on ourselves and not Fiji.”
The USA’s Perry Baker scored at the death to seal the deal and top Pool A. Before that, David Still scored to take them 7-0 up at half time, while the Blitzboks managed just one try through Ryan Oosthuizen.
Earlier in the day, The SA side claimed a 31-5 win over Canada, before going on to beat Kenya 26-5 in their second outing of the day.
The Blitzboks will face Fiji at 06h50 (SA time) on Sunday. Australia and Argentina will square off in the first quarter-final at 06h28, before New Zealand and Samoa meet at 07h12. The USA and Ireland will battle it out in the last quarter-final at 07h34.
Scorers:
Match One:
South Africa 31 – Tries: JC Pretorius (2), Siviwe Soyizwapi, Darren Adonis, Selvyn Davids. Conversions: Ronald Brown, Dewald Human (2).
Canada 5 – Try: David Richard.
Match Two
South Africa 26 – Tries: Sako Makata (3), Davids. Conversions: Brown (3).
Kenya 10 – Try: Alvi Marube
Match Three
South Africa 7 – Try: Ryan Oosthuizen. Conversion: Human.