Cape Town – While Blitzbok coach Neil Powell was full of praise for his charges, he admitted that losing in the final of the Sydney Sevens to Fiji was disappointing.

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South Africa went down 12-10 to Fiji in an entertaining match played in wet conditions at the Bankwest Stadium.

“That one hurts a bit, because we did not sustain the excellent form we displayed in the first four matches of the tournament. We had some basics letting us down in the final and that was disappointing. We paid the price, unfortunately.”

Powell was quick to pay credit to Fiji who were contesting their first final during this year’s World Rugby Sevens Series season.

“I thought we had control of the match till the end, but Fiji exploited our mistakes and they won. Our guys really deserve credit though with their effort this week. The final will be a negative, but there are so many positives for us from this weekend,” the coach pointed out.

“We will be going into the next tournament with some confidence and momentum and that is a good thing.”

Blitzboks captain, Stedman Gans, said the mistakes in the final will be remembered.

“We did improve a lot from last weekend and the way we improved was very positive. The final was a let-down though and we will have to look at ourselves again, because we lost due to our mistakes. As a squad, we are improving though and I think we are on the up, which is a good thing.”

The Blitzbok are currently second on the Sevens Series with log behind New Zealand who have won two to out of four tournaments so far. 

The next tournament in the series takes place in Los Angeles from Febuary 29 to March 1.