Former sevens star Ruhan Nel has shared insight on the challenges facing the Blitzboks, while asking fans to be patient with head coach Sandile Ngcobo and his young squad.
The South Africans beat Canada to claim 11th place in Los Angeles last week, their worst finish so far in the 2024 World Sevens Series season.
The Los Angeles performance followed underwhelming showing in Vancouver, where the Blitzboks also failed to qualify for the Cup quarter-finals.
With tournaments in Hong Kong and Singapore left, Ngcobo’s charges find themselves in seventh place on the overall standings. The top eight teams on the circuit will retain core status.
Nel, who made 158 appearances for the Blitzboks and won two world titles before making a permanent switch to 15s, acknowledged the frustration of supporters in a wide-ranging interview on the DHL Stormers website while confident the next generation will come good.
“With Phillip [Snyman] and Stix [ Ngcobo] in charge, I played with Phillip, and Stix and I were in the Academy together. To have seen them grow into the roles they have now in that system is good,” Nel said.
“They are sitting with a lot of youngsters who still need to learn some hard lessons. I’m a fan now, but knowing a bit more about what happens on the inside I think people can be quite harsh because they look purely at the results.
“But it is such a high-performance and cut-throat environment that the smallest of mistakes can cost you tournaments. The majority of the squad are quite young and still learning while on the World Series stage.
“As fans we have grown accustomed to the team winning tournaments, but in the same breath, you need to realise there are a lot of new guys coming in who are learning big lessons at an early stage, so we need to learn to have patience as supporters and they will get there.”
For more, see thestormers.com
Photo: Travis Prior/INPHO/Shutterstock
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Src: sarugbymag.co.za
