By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@Blitzboks.
The Springbok Sevens team moved into the lead in the HSBC World Sevens Series after adding the Vancouver Sevens crown to their season, putting them in prime position to win the Series in next weekend’s final tournament in New York.
The Blitzboks beat Spain 38-12 in the final to move joint top with Fiji, who Spain shocked in the semifinals and set up the last tournament showdown for the title.
The Blitzboks and Fiji are both on 86 log points with one tournament left in the regular season.
The Fijians still top the log though, as they have a +201 points’ differential, compared to the Blitzboks’ +199, and they are the only two teams that can claim the overall series in the USA.
Springbok Sevens head coach Philip Snyman applauded his squad after a clinical performance in the final of the HSBC SVNS Vancouver.
“We really improved game by game and in the final, the guys were very clinical and delivered one of the best performances I have seen by the Springbok Sevens in a long time,” Snyman said.
“Our search for consistency is very important in our vision to become the best sevens system in the world and that starts at home. We aim to bring consistency into our training sessions as well, because that will flow over to tournaments and I am happy to see that happened here in Vancouver.”
“We are not perfect yet, but that is okay. I told the players they should not be scared to make mistakes, as long as it is aggressive mistakes and this weekend, I cannot fault the effort or performance the players put on the field.”
The Blitzbok coach said back-to-back tournament victories was another bonus: “We laid out some aims at the start of the season. We wanted to play in every semi-final and then improve on that by consistently making finals and winning them.
“Going back-to-back this weekend, with six changes to the squad that won in Perth, shows that we are getting there. The depth in the squad is very pleasing.”
“The players will enjoy this win, but the job is not done as we are tied with Fiji on 86 points and with the final tournament of the series this coming weekend in New York, we have it all to do.”
Snyman said their ability on defence to create more turnovers proved vital in Vancouver and they will try even harder to get that success rate up more.
“Now it is a matter of recovery, getting back to zero again and start focussing on next weekend. It was a massive two days for us, but we will start all over again for the next one.”