Blitzboks sniff Olympic medal

The Blitzboks beat Australia 22-5 in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, securing a last four date with Great Britain.

Having lost to Australia in the group stages of the tournament, Blitzbok skipper Kyle Brown said it was imperative that they win well to boost their confidence as they look to grab South Africa’s third medal at the games.

“Everybody stepped back and realised that that wasn’t the way we normally play rugby. If you are going to hammer players after what happened it’s going to knock them down even further – it was important for us to build the team up and help the players realise and believe in their abilities,” Brown said.

“We’ve played some fantastic rugby this season and the guys know that if they come together and play as well as they can, we will be unstoppable.”

The only hurdle standing between the Blitzbokke and the chance of an Olympic podium finish is a hugely formidable Great Britain. The team, featuring the best of England, Wales and Scotland’s Sevens players, won’t be easy to beat.

“They are a very well balanced team. They’ve got good aerial skills, they’ve got height in players like James Rodwell and James Davies in the forwards and some serious speed out in the backs with some skilful players. We need to make our one-on-one hits or else they will start offloading the ball and if they get that right, they will have momentum and they have the speed to put the tries away,” Brown cautioned.

The South African skipper also quashed thoughts of the Great Britain side lacking continuity, having only played together a couple of months.

“They played those four Euro League tournaments together and I think that is plenty of rugby. At the end of the day, it’s mostly the English side with a couple of guys from Wales and Scotland. I think they’ve really gelled nicely – I watched a lot of that Euro League rugby they played in,” Brown said.

With a medal tantalisingly close, Brown said there is more of a focus in the squad as they look to emulate their Commonwealth Games glory.

“For me, things have started to settle down a little bit more. The quarterfinals are always a very ‘iffy’ stage and from tomorrow onwards we have the opportunity to play for a medal and that is important to us.”

South Africa face Great Britain at 20h00 tonight, while Japan take on Fiji in the first semi-final at 19h30.

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