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Blitzboks 'deserve to be in the semi-finals'
By Ian Cameron
Springbok Sevens interim head coach Philip Snyman has lauded his team following their dramatic victory over New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
This win advances South Africa to the semi-finals, where they will compete for a medal against France at 15:30 on Saturday.
The team secured their playoff spot with a 49-5 win against Japan, meeting the required margin of 21 points needed after losses to Ireland and New Zealand in the pool stages.
Despite a losing to New Zealand the previous day, they went on to pull off a 14-7 in a brutally tough quarter-final at the Stade de France.
“They deserve to be in the semi-finals, as they have executed and delivered everything I have asked from them today,” Snyman said after the match.
“We did not play poorly on day one, we just could not get our hands on the ball, but today was a different performance, a really inspiring one.
“We needed to win big against Japan and scored seven well-worked tries, but against New Zealand, our defence was going to be crucial and I am so proud of how the guys responded.”
Snyman told his charges to believe in themselves despite a poor showing in the pool stage.
“Once we made it into the quarters, I told them to start believing that it is possible,” said Snyman.
“I had a good feeling about the ability of the side, so once we were into the last eight, it was time to remind them of that.
“This was such a great win, built on defence and workrate, while we struck when we needed to. In fact, we left another try or two out there. These guys deserve to contest for a medal, they showed that tonight.”
The semi-finals, which will see the Blitzboks play France, take place on Saturday at 2.30pm BST. Two-time defending men’s Olympic gold medallists Fiji will play Australia in the other semi-final.
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I think there's a lot of truth to that. Improved fitness, which is something that can be improved at least, would help make for better decision-making in the latter stages of the game. I also feel though that we just haven't developed enough depth yet, as they allude to. That should be the focus looking ahead. Considering how well England have done at age-grade level in recent years, we can clearly see the talent is there. It's just a case of stepping up to senior level. I do believe that Conor O'Shea has implemented a few things that will pay off. How the EPS contracts play out will be interesting and you would think would help get more out of the players, so, unlike the media storm out there, I'm not overly concerned with England at the moment. I'm more concerned with Wales. We need to be giving them encouragement and helping where we can there. At the end of the day international rugby needs to be as tight, exciting and competitive as possible if the game is to develop and spread worldwide, which it really hasn't done that well over the decades, until maybe more recently.
Go to commentsPSDT for me. I keep seeing Ox getting a lot of support in the various threads, I’m not going to pretend to know enough about font row sorcery to dispute it.
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