Blitzboks settle for bronze
9 Dec 2012
South Africa finished third at the Port Elizabeth Sevens while New Zealand cruised to a comfortable tournament win.
The Blitzboks ended the competition on a high, beating Argentina 35-0 in the third-place play-off. South Africa’s task was made easier by the fact that Argentina’s semi-final encounter with France went deep into extra time, and so fatigue took its toll on the South Americans in the last game of the day.
Indeed, France also struggled to keep up with New Zealand, who eventually won the final 47-12.
The Kiwis were deserved winners, having beaten the Blitzboks 12-5 in the semi-final. South Africa started that play-off impressively, taking the fight to the New Zealanders at the collisions and weighing in with some brutal and error-inducing tackles.
It was their defence as much as their attack that allowed them to go to the break with a 5-0 lead. Paul Delport was on hand to finish a well-worked try, and also made a crucial contribution at the close of the half when his desperate tackle denied the Kiwis a try.
But it didn’t take long for New Zealand to draw level, with Kurt Baker crossing the tryline early in the second stanza. Baker was so nearly in for his second later in the half, and again it took some desperate defence to stop the Kiwis’ momentum.
That stalling of momentum was only temporary, however, as New Zealand struck the decisive blow moments later. After bulldozing the Blitzboks at the ruck and robbing them of possession, New Zealand shifted the ball wide and scored the match-winning try.
For all the results, click here
32 Comments
9 Dec 2012, 10:53 am
Empty Dragon?
Why put up a post with stuff all in it?
9 Dec 2012, 12:36 pm
Say what?
Article almost as empty as the stadium…
9 Dec 2012, 12:58 pm
And slowly filling up…
Way to many missed tackles by the Boks, better tighten up for the semi.
9 Dec 2012, 15:24 pm
@Slartibartfast-2: just flashed on TV:
today’s crowd attendance in excess of 20 000
9 Dec 2012, 15:46 pm
whoopee. we beat USA.
7s sucks.
9 Dec 2012, 16:45 pm
This is like a game of thrones. Except keo is snorting cement.
9 Dec 2012, 17:19 pm
Headline should read: “Stupidity buries Blitzboks.” I’m convinced we have the thickest rugby players in the world.
I mean, how difficult is it to realise that you should avoid running into every available opponent in sevens? Our poor sods obviously don’t understand the concept.
9 Dec 2012, 17:32 pm
@umfezi-7: even in 7s I see we try to run over opponents. Way too predictable. NZ were just sitting back waiting for the inevitable counter ruck and punished us from the turnovers. When they had the ball they looked to off load in the tackle or otherwise create space for the players around them. Very effective and unpredictable, and hard to defend against.
Oh. And I f***ing hate the legion of coloureds at the stadium cheering on the All Blacks.
9 Dec 2012, 17:58 pm
Eish…the glory boy palookas got their self loved, over paid, over glorified backsides handed to them again. What a surprise….
9 Dec 2012, 18:01 pm
@umfezi-7: They dont care buddy. They are only worried which model BMW, how many Black Label quarts and how many buckets of KFC their contracts will buy them so they can pull maximum chicks. From what I have heard – bunch of arrogant glory boys. Think the sun shines from their a-holes and go around treating everyone else like their loyal servants.
9 Dec 2012, 18:01 pm
@Liewe Luiperd-8: Funny thing is, it wont be long before there is a legion of whites sitting right next to them cheering the All Blacks too.
9 Dec 2012, 18:37 pm
Can anyone explain the logic behind the pools in this competition?
How is it possible to have Fiji, New Zealand, England in one pool, while Portugal, USA, Canada and Zimbabwe is another. Surely the pools should be compiled according to ranking.
9 Dec 2012, 18:49 pm
@TooMuchRugby-12:
Didn’t Portugal beat us and England the last round?
9 Dec 2012, 19:09 pm
@TooMuchRugby-12: To my understanding, pools are determined from results in the previous tournament.
9 Dec 2012, 19:59 pm
The international commentators were at a complete loss as to why NZ are so successful at the SA 7s…
It’s practically a home tournament for them.
The experiment of PE has failed dismally. Move the tournament out of the Cape and as far away as possible from the huge coloured traitor support base and you may find the tables starting to turn back in SA’s favour.
9 Dec 2012, 20:03 pm
Sevens is just plain lame and frustrating. If they want to compete they need to put a team together that has Super Rugby experience. Guys like –
Kanko, Ebersohn, Rhule, Basson, Jongi Nokwe, Kabamba Floors, Brussouw, Willie Le Roux, Sarel Pretorius, Juan de Jongh, Joe Pietersen, Aplon, Koster, Kolisi, Houghaard, Paul Jordaan, etc etc They should have some clause that each franchise should give a player per Sevens season from each of the 5 Super franchises. Might develop our backline play a bit.
9 Dec 2012, 20:25 pm
To be honest I’m more excited ahbout seeing that provincial sevens tournament next week.
9 Dec 2012, 20:27 pm
@silent_shadow-17: *about
9 Dec 2012, 21:34 pm
Seems to me we need to add so top class players like Slumtown mentioned
and ad some beef too
And yes let them play this in Kimberly or some where hard for visiting teams
9 Dec 2012, 21:44 pm
@Slumtown-16:
The Blitzbokke did well – only lost one game this tournament (so did NZ).
And that loss was imo principally attributable to our boys being rucked off their own ball a couple of times. (So rucking & counter-rucking need attention more than anything else – we don’t need an influx of Super15 & Bok stars into 7s – that’s retrogressive).
Besides 7s (same as T20) – not the real thing; just superficial ******* derivatives of their respective serious underlying sporting disciplines – pop sport.
Just ‘light-hearted’ entertainment – no need for us to take frivolity so damn seriously…. have fun & move on.
9 Dec 2012, 21:59 pm
@Angostura-20:
And a new Olympic sport so its becoming popular world wide where as the top 10 rugby countries in 15 man game are still too strong for rest of the world
I agree we need to contest the rucks and breakdown more aggressively and ad some bigger stronger fast players like Samoa
9 Dec 2012, 22:36 pm
No I cannot move on while watching teh Kiwis dominate the game. Perhaps if we had a better focus on it, it would affect the backline skills of our S15 players too.
10 Dec 2012, 03:55 am
Totally different from 15 mate. Training is orientated around sprint work and burst type sessions. I guess one could compare the work with a black role only soldier(commandos) to a SAS soldier both extremely fit but it’s either one or the other. Can’t have hybrid athletes anymore. Sevens is becoming too professional for that. Gordo and Forbes are bloody legends too. As long as their knowledge is there we will always have the upper hand. See Aussie has started a sevens academy with the sole purpose of getting an extra gold in Brazil. Don’t waste your money men haha.
10 Dec 2012, 05:54 am
Paul Treu has the best job in the world: good pay, job security, no effort needed, …..
10 Dec 2012, 06:18 am
@Big Jack-24:
Travel the world, stay in nice hotels…
10 Dec 2012, 07:16 am
the try that Baker scored courtesy of Mikkelson’s football skills…ladies and gents, that was just marvelous to behold.
10 Dec 2012, 07:44 am
2 many quotas in the team.. ANCYL would love this team..all that they need is Juan de jongh
10 Dec 2012, 09:26 am
Sevens team is ****, reckon they should start again like the Oz. I saw them in Dubai and frankly they are closer to football players than rugger players. The teams like Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Scotland all work harder and play a better tactic than the B(F)oks …
))
10 Dec 2012, 16:54 pm
Eish marra….I kant belief….
10 Dec 2012, 19:10 pm
This is all just indicative of the problem in South African rugby. We are still convinced that running into people is the way to play. Even in a game like sevens where exploiting space is the most important thing one can do, we run into people.
We coach our boys to do this from a very young age. Every primary school coach loves getting that one big kid who can run over everyone. That kid develops into the star player and everyone else looks up to him, until everyone catches up to him as well. Problem is… they still think running into each other is the best way to get to the try line.
Stupid stupid stupid rugby.
Treu has to be the worst coach in the sevens game that he still cannot see this. The Boks are they only team who kick for field position, who take crash balls etc. We’re too thick to understand that there could just be an alternative.
11 Dec 2012, 00:19 am
The Blitzbokke more like the Phizzbokke – and yet I agree with some of the comments – SA rugby still wants to bulldoze and run over players, crash/tackle lose the ball and it happened a number of times. NZ were just too clever for them in the semi’s and then blew away the French in the final.
As to moving it – not sure what was wrong with George, but for a world tournament the crowd was pathetic. BUT – to have a swipe at the many many coloureds “SA term” who support NZ and always have and always will is a cheap shot.
11 Dec 2012, 02:56 am
@Yellowhairman-31:
Well for starters, George is about 330km from the stadium so I think a little unfair to blame them…
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