Blitzboks ’made it difficult’ but medal hopes remain

IT became a bit of a “dog-fight” against Kenya, but now that the Blitzboks have made it through to the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics, they will feel much more confident of their medal chances.

Assistant coach Renfred Dazel said following the 14-5 victory over Kenya yesterday that the players were “really disappointed” with their performance in the second match of the day, after beating Ireland 33-14 earlier.

After running up a 14-0 lead through tries by Selvyn Davids and captain Siviwe Soyizwapi, a flurry of sloppy tackles, poor handling and lineout errors allowed the east Africans back into the game, and Kenya took full advantage through a try by Collins Injera.

The Springbok Sevens side had to scramble in the second half to keep the marauding Kenyans at bay, with a couple of crucial breakdown steals rescuing the situation.

The big game today is the quarter-final against either Fiji or Great Britain (11am or 11.30am) – depending on where they finish in Pool C.

“We were prepared, but we couldn’t keep our ball on the day, and that’s what made it so difficult for us to get the momentum in the game. That is what made it such a dog-fight,” the experienced Branco du Preez said after the match.

“We started off well, putting on two tries in the beginning. Then we just couldn’t hang on to the ball. We had a decent start against Ireland, and coming into Kenya, it was not the way we wanted to go into day two.”

Impi Visser, who scored the second try against Ireland, felt that the lost line-outs on attack meant that the Blitzboks made “made it difficult for ourselves”, but noted that following a tumultuous two weeks – where they have had little training time without coach Neil Powell, who is in Covid-19 isolation – the South Africans were just happy to progress to the next round.

After their Rio 2016 bronze medal, Soyizwapi’s team had high hopes of going all the way to a gold medal in Tokyo.

Those expectations may have been lowered due to their less-than-ideal preparations, but Dazel is still feeling upbeat about their chances.