Blitzbok coach Neil Powell believes the teething problems his rebuilding squad have experienced are improving the players and himself because they have had to go back to basics. The Blitzboks missed out on the semifinals in the opening tournament of the 2018/19 HSBC World Sevens Series in Dubai in December and could only place third in Cape Town a week later. Having won back-to-back titles over the past two seasons while showing remarkable consistency that has yielded seven tournament wins‚ six runners-up places‚ three third and two fourth places‚ ending fifth in Dubai was a surprise. The team has lost a swathe of key players to 15s and injury‚ which has accelerated the introduction of a slew of academy players to the Blitzboks squad. They were clearly overwhelmed in Dubai but showed massive improvement a week later in Cape Town. After the holidays and a lot of hard work at their base in Stellenbosch‚ Powell has been able to do some old school coaching again. “Rebuilding this team a...
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