Springbok Sevens assistant coach Philip Snyman was pleased, but not smiling, after the Blitzboks’ opening victory at the HSBC Cape Town Sevens on Friday evening.
“You always want to win when playing in front of this Cape Town crowd and to open the tournament with a win is ideal, so we are not complaining,” said Snyman.
“We did make some errors, but we needed this game to get the euphoria of Dubai out of our heads. One or two of the players will now realise that you need to back up a good performance by a better one if you want to be successful.
“We did make some defensive errors, but those are easy to fix. There were jersey grabs, instead of shoulders to bodies so that is an easy fix. We did leave some tries out there as well, on Saturday we need to use every opportunity you get.”
Snyman said Fiji will be a huge challenge first up on Saturday. The Fijians beat France in their pool clash by 33-0.
“They will be a tough opponent, as usual – whether you play Fiji in the pool or in the knock-out stages, they remain a tough team to beat,” said Snyman.
“We want to finish top of the pool here in Cape Town and to do that, we need to play well against Fiji and make sure we grab every opportunity that comes our way. We have much to look forward to tomorrow.”
