Cape Town - The Blitzboks found themselves slipping and sliding on the North American leg of the World Rugby Sevens series the past two weekends.
As a result of their struggles, they are no longer in the top four of the series, which means Olympic qualification, as things currently stand, will not be automatic.
Both tournaments were disappointing with the Springbok Sevens dropping the ball in the most recent Canada Sevens, failing to make it to the quarter-finals.
The Blitzboks ended the tournament in 13th place, their worst performance in the Vancouver tournament after having won it three times in the last five years.
The previous weekend the team scraped through with one win to the play-offs of the Los Angeles tournament but failed to progress any further. The group match was the only one they could win.
Yes, injuries to key players hampered them, but the team possesses enough quality and the type of players to get by without their missing teammates.
They are now seventh on the log with four tournaments to go.
“Winning is a habit and I suppose losing could become one too if you don't get out of that hole," Sandile Ngcobo, Springbok Sevens coach, said Monday.
"We have been spiralling downwards at certain moments and that is bad for us.
“There were some good moments, and we did create good opportunities, but then we could not capitalise on them. We will be analysing what and who went wrong and why and act accordingly.”
Ngcobo says the analysis and introspection will start with the roles of the management team, firstly with himself as the coach. They want to look at where things went wrong and what they can do to fix it.
There are plenty of things that the Blitzboks will have to fix ahead of the next tournament.
Firstly, their excellent defence has been almost non-existent in the last two tournaments. Usually they are a team who try to concede less than 10 tries throughout the group stages and sometimes the entire tournament, but this time around that defence was not up to the standard.
And thanks to that massive defence, the team normally thrived on the attack with their nippy and skilful playmakers. This would lead to spectacular tries and moves, sometimes with ball in hand, other times with clever kicks behind the opposition's defence.
But with so many injuries, especially to the playmakers, it's been tough going on the attack as well.
“We are struggling with so many of our playmakers not available due to injury – we are currently playing with our No 8 and nine players in those positions – which has a big influence on our attack,” Ngcobo added.
Selvyn Davids, Justin Geduld, Dewald Human, Ronald Brown, Shaun Williams and Jaiden Baron are currently on the sideline with injuries.
It's not just the management who will be scrutinised but also the players. Looking ahead to the last tournaments to secure automatic Olympic qualification, the Blitzboks will bring in reinforcements.
“We place a high premium on the setting and maintaining of standards and there will be consequences as we are now tarnishing the good work we have done earlier in the season.”
The Blitzboks will play New Zealand, Ireland and Kenya at the Hong Kong Sevens which starts at the end of March.
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