Blitz Bokke blitzed

What an amazing weekend of Sevens in Port Elizabeth – I have to say that I am thrilled that the South African leg of the tournament was moved to Port Elizabeth. Although I do feel for George, there is no doubt that the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium has to be one of the most beautiful. It was built for the Soccer World Cup in 2010 and it should be used more.

It raises a point for me — some of the “older” stadiums should really be having discussions around their viability — as nice as they might have been, these new stadiums are really brilliant and I hope that the municipalities and sports unions can reach a common point of making use of the stadiums. But more on this another time.

As always, South Africa hosted a great tournament with lots of fun and games and Port Elizabeth showed once again that rugby support for the Springboks is amazing. Sadly, it seems some South African citizens choose to still make their old and worn out point by supporting the All Blacks — there was resounding agreement on Twitter after the tournament that these people need to grow up. I interviewed Sevens coach, Paul Treu on Thursday morning and he was very clear that his team understood the pressure and knew what they needed to do. They did it … almost. The nature of Sevens is that 30 seconds is a long time and more than enough time to score a try or two, as while that ball is in play, the referee can’t just stop the game and in the Cup Final between arch rivals, the All Blacks and South Africa, this is what happened. We resorted to defending a 27-21 lead, desperately I must say, only to have the adventurous All Blacks conjure up two great tries to win in literally the last second by 33-27 – I was gutted!

However, what I wanted to emphasise in this piece is that we as South Africans are finally embracing this sensational form of the game, not at the expense of the 15s game but in its own right, and our Blitz Bokke deserve our support. These chaps really work hard and give of their all every single weekend, flying the South African flag proudly. They have ebbed and flowed in their performances but this is the nature of the game — you can be a cup finalist one week and knocked out a week later, so this is not unique to our team. It is good to see that South Africa has never really moved out of the top five of the overall log and I am positive this will be maintained.

As for the HSBC Sevens in Port Elizabeth, the Blitz Bokke can hold their heads up with pride for a brilliant effort and we look forward to Wellington, New Zealand in February 2012.