New Zealand's Moses Leo is tackled by South Africa's Rosko Specman during their men's Pool A match at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Sevens. New Zealand's Moses Leo is tackled by South Africa's Rosko Specman during their men's Pool A match at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Sevens. Picture: Carl de Souza / AFP
The Team South Africa Sevens side need to pull themselves together ahead of Thursday’s final Paris Olympics pool game against Japan (4pm kickoff) after a disastrous opening day.
The Blitzboks suffered narrow defeats against tournament favourites Ireland and New Zealand on Wednesday. Now they need a big win against Japan, coupled with other results going their way in the other pools, to finish as the best third-placed team and qualify for the quarter-finals.
Their biggest problem was keeping hold of the ball, as Ireland and the New Zealanders made the South Africans tackle for the majority of the matches. When the Blitzboks did get their hands on the ball, they seemed rushed and couldn’t manage their attacking breakdown properly.
Japan aren’t as physically imposing as Ireland and New Zealand, so the South Africans will back themselves to do a lot better with ball in hand and get their speedsters going, which is off course their biggest strength.
Interim coach Philip Snyman says they haven’t given up hope yet, but will need to produce a much better performance on Thursday.
“We are still in it, but it’s up to us (to perform). If we play like we did [on Wednesday], and don’t get ourselves ready and up for it, Japan are going to come out hard and it’s going to be a long day for us,” Snyman said.
“It’s all in our hands. If we can come and fire together, the defence - do what we can - and keep our ball in attack, this team can play in the quarter-finals and ever go further.”
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