By Lucky Vince Pienaar
The final whistle blows. Coach Philip Snyman turns away from the cameras, his face in his hands. He can’t control the tears. The Blitzboks have just won Olympic bronze, scoring the winning try in the last play of the match against Australia.
This is what it means to the Blitzboks. A bronze medal is as good as gold.
The Blitzboks’ journey to an Olympic medal has been steeped in setbacks and challenges from the time Neil Powell left sevens to go to the Sharks.
Not that Powell had covered himself in glory in his last period as coach. The backslide had already started before he left, leaving Sandile Ngcobo in charge.
Frustratingly, the masters of South African rugby, Rassie Erasmus included, seemed to leave the sevens to their own devices, watching them get weaker and weaker.
If Ngcobo didn’t give up the job himself, he would probably still be the coach of a struggling outfit. But he stepped down and suggested that Philip Snyman be given the job.
Snyman took over and the improvement was immediate, but not earth-shattering. Again, SA Rugby just let it happen.
Instead of qualifying automatically through the HSBC SVNS tournament, the Blitzboks did so badly that they had to play in the Africa qualification round. They went and lost to Kenya, which meant they had to play in the Last Chance tournament in Monte Carlo.
At this, the very lowest point in the recent history of sevens, they finally managed a win, scoring the 12th and final place at the Olympics.
At the Games themselves, the Blitzboks started badly. Losing their first two pool matches, the writing seemed on the wall. But then, through a high-scoring performance against Japan, they sneaked into the last eight – already a remarkable achievement.
But their first match would be against the top seeds, the All Blacks, a tough match by any standards. But famously the Blitzboks won.
In their next match, against France, they unravelled in the last two minutes in the hands of a French team inspired by Antoine Dupont.
Then came that third-place playoff against Australia. The winner would get bronze, and the loser would leave empty-handed.
The rest, as they say, is history.
It is a sports achievement that the rugby community and all South Africans should celebrate – and that includes those South African rugby officials who virtually ignored the Blitzboks right up until the last match.
The Blitzboks are coming home with Olympic bronze, a medal as good as gold.
The finals:
Blitzboks (2 tries) 14-7 (1 try) New Zealand
Blitzboks (1 try) 5-19 (3 tries) France
Blitzboks (4 tries) 26-19 (3 tries) Australia
Pictured above: Blitzboks with their bronze medal.
Source: Blitzboks/X
