Head coach Philip Snyman says the Blitzboks must make full use of the ball if they’re to beat Australia and charge into the Canada Sevens quarter-finals unbeaten on Saturday.
A defensive masterclass on day 1 at BC Place saw the South Africans claim back-to-back wins against New Zealand (12-10) and Ireland (28-7), securing a place in the knockout stages ahead of their final Pool B clash against the Aussies (9:36pm).
“Yes, really happy with the end result after day one, [finishing] unbeaten. I think the game against New Zealand was very tough and we knew they’re a quality side,” said Snyman while stressing the need for improvement.
“We made one or two unforced errors where we gave ball possession away and at the end of the day, they had almost three-quarters of ball possession and we only had a quarter.
“That’s always difficult to play against, but I think hats off to the guys and to the players because we had two minutes of ball and still to beat New Zealand, it’s a massive shift and massive effort.”
Against Ireland, the Blitzboks dominated from the outset, and Snyman credited a defensive tweak for the improved performance.
“I think we made one small adjustment on defence to be a little bit more aggressive, but I think it worked against Ireland to get more ball possession, to get more turnovers to be more in their faces,” he said. “So really proud of the guys, they executed the plan extremely well and hopefully we can kick into another gear tomorrow.”
On the challenge against Australia, Snyman emphasised the importance of discipline and execution. “We need to be a lot more clinical, I think there was also one lapse of concentration against Ireland and we kind of went out of our structure.
“We know Australia is going to be a tough team, they’re going to be very physical, they’re going to run hard.
“We just need to make sure that we stick to our tackles, we need to make our one-on-one hits, create pressure points at the breakdown and then, when we have the ball in hand, capitalise,” he added.
“We’re a very dangerous side with the ball in hand and we need to make sure we get more than 50% ball possession against them.”
