South Africa show character to win three games on opening day of HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series

Matt Jones - Editor 12:47 02/12/2017
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  • Werner Kok.

    Defending Dubai and HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series champions South Africa chalked up three wins on the opening day of the new season, but Neil Powell and Werner Kok were far from happy with the beginning to their two trophy defences.

    The two-time series champions laboured to a 19-10 victory in their Pool A opener against invitational side Uganda, before stepping up the pace as they conceded just five more points in their remaining two games – claiming a 46-5 victory against Kenya and beating Canada 28-0.

    Despite not being satisfied with their start and claiming his side must “start all over again” today, coach Powell was delighted with the character his side showed.

    “It’s a sign of a good team when they play badly and can still win,” said the 39-year- old, himself a former Blitzbokke player.

    “It’s going to be tough tomorrow and one the guys need to be up for it.

    “I was happy after the last game. We had a slow start against Uganda, very disappointed with that performance. Because the guys haven’t played together as maybe the 12 we have, there was a little bit of rustiness. But they stepped up the next two games.”

    Powell had said there was no pressure on his side coming into the tournament, despite a dominant 2016/17 in which they won five of the eight tournaments, and finished second in the remaining three.

    It is a huge year for sevens rugby, with the Rugby World Cup Sevens taking place in America next summer and the Commonwealth Games – another title the South Africans will be defending – in Australia in April.

    Powell admitted it is always difficult to gauge how your own team and opponents will perform in the opening leg, so he was pleased to emerge from day one unscathed.

    “It is difficult. You’ll never know until you get here,” he added.

    “You might play some games back in South Africa but it’s not the quality of the teams here. These guys challenge you a bit more. We pride ourselves on defence and I think that was very disappointing against Uganda. But the guys showed character to come back.”

    His words were echoed by Werner Kok, the Western Province winger who was part of that 2014 Commonwealth Games success, as well as being in the side that won bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

    “It could have been better,” he said bluntly of the opening day.

    “We still made a lot of mistakes, lots of opportunities we didn’t take and I think we’ll go home, look at the videos and see where we can get better.”

    He did add that it was a good sign they played badly yet still opened up the season with three straight wins.

    “It’s definitely good, as it doesn’t allow us to get complacent. The bad start against Uganda was actually a good thing. To put us back into basics and we realised it’s not going to happen by itself. The boys pulled together and we had two other good games.”

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