The highs and lows of being a member of the Springbok Sevens team were best illustrated last weekend at the conclusion of the HSBC Singapore Sevens, where the Blitzboks lost three consecutive matches after racking up a record streak of 36 wins, and saw three team members injured and unable to continue.
Furthermore, critics were quick to point to their winning streak not including the scalps of Fiji or New Zealand, who were absent for the start of the 2022 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, but returned to action last weekend.
A horror showing with regards to discipline also crippled the Blitzboks as they conceded six penalties in their match against USA, five against Fiji and seven against Argentina (with two yellow cards), in what seemed to be a baffling implosion of such a respected and applauded system.
The South Africans had to take the criticism to heart and be honest with themselves on why and what went wrong in Singapore, admitted Blitzbok captain Siviwe Soyizwapi on Thursday. They did so and now, barely a week later, have another opportunity to reverse those fortunes.
“A week is a long time indeed – last week we enjoyed the humidity of Singapore, on Tuesday we had our training session while it was snowing here in Vancouver,” said Soyizwapi.
“Last week we started the tournament with a good streak, now we are on an unwanted streak. So, things could not be more different.”
One constant that remains though, is the willingness of each player to own up to their mistakes and there was plenty of that in Canada.
“Each player accepted his shortcomings from last weekend,” added Soyizwapi.
“We are all in agreement that we never really got going. And that it is now up to us as players to change that and rebound.
“We basically went back to zero and started building from there, not only physically, but mentally. We were in a downward spiral and just have to reverse that here in Canada.”
The fact that the players embrace their drive to be the best team they can be, makes such recoveries easy, according to Soyizwapi: “We know what our standards are and what we can achieve and that is a huge driving factor this weekend.
“The numbers are telling us that we were not good enough last weekend and that hurts. We will be back to our best.”
The Blitzboks are the defending champions in Vancouver and won two of the last three HSBC Canada Sevens tournaments hosted in BC Place Stadium.