Head coach Sandile Ngcobo says the Blitzboks were on the wrong side of tight margins in consecutive defeats on Saturday that cost them a shot at the Perth Sevens title.
The South Africans lost their final Pool A fixture 19-5 to series leaders Argentina, but still booked a spot in the cup quarter-finals, where they came close to beating Fiji in a 14-12 result that could have gone either way.
Ngcobo‘s charges only had themselves to blame against Los Pumas as their handling let them down and often nullified the momentum they created. Against Fiji, an early setback rocked the Blitzboks when Quewin Nortje pulled up with a leg injury.
Leading 5-0 at half time, the Blitzboks conceded two converted tries after the break. James Murphy was also yellow carded for playing an opponent in the air, and with a defender short, the Fijian attack outworked SA to score what proved to be the decisive points in the match.
“The ball didn’t bounce our way. We asked these boys to fight and dig deep and the results will come,” Ngcobo was quoted post-match. “Ball in hand we actually did very well, I just feel the ball bounced the other way for us, and one or two discipline errors I think cost us.
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“You can’t make that mistake against Fiji, they’ll punish you. When we were seven [players] we stood a better chance and the odds of us getting the ball back and putting these guys under pressure were higher with seven on the field.”
“Unfortunately I believe that yellow card and one or two bounces really did us.”
Skipper Selvyn Davids added: “That yellow card was unfortunate, but that was not why we lost today. Credit to Fiji who played their hearts out. We came close, but maybe we kicked too much possession away when we had the ball.”
The Blitzboks will face France in the fifth-placed semi-final at 9:24am on Sunday, but will do so without Nortje, who scored three tries in the pool stages.
“I’m very gutted about that, that’s our speedster; he never complains or sits out in training. He plays six games with no complaints,” Ngcobo said.
“For that guy to be hurt is a massive loss for us.”
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