All Blacks Sevens coach Tietjens rues loss to South Africa

All Blacks Sevens coach Tietjens rues loss to South Africa

All Blacks Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens said mistakes at vital times cost the team their first Cup win on American soil since 2008 when they were downed by South Africa 14-7 in today’s final of the Las Vegas Sevens.

“We lacked accuracy at in the set place and that cost us, it cost us one try at least. The guys gave us their all, but we weren’t good enough, that’s all.”

The loss was a repeat of last year’s final and was the second tournament in a row that the All Blacks Sevens have been out-punched by the Blitzbokke. The loss has cost the All Blacks Sevens their lead in the IRB Sevens World Series after four rounds with South Africa now leading by one point from New Zealand.

Tietjens said the nine game suspension handed down to strapping Canterbury forward Sam Dickson for contact with the eye area of a Fijian player in their pool game rocked the team. “It was quite disruptive to the side as we only found out fifteen minutes before the quarter final against England.”

Dickson has been a regular member of the All Blacks Sevens having won selection last season. Tietjens said Dickson was “devastated. He couldn’t believe he had to go to the citing commissioner. I really feel for the guy. He has never been the aggressor. He couldn’t even recall the incident.”

He said after careful consideration the suspension would not be appealed, ruling Dickson out of the upcoming Wellington leg. He pointed out that even if an appeal shaved several games from the penalty, Dickson could still not play the full tournament and that was not ideal.

New Zealand now heads home to the next leg of the IRB Sevens World Series and will again face Fiji, who didn’t even qualify for the quarter finals in Las Vegas, pool play along with France and Spain.

Sasue

Personally I think the AB Sevens has a slight problem - they do not have enough speedsters in the game - they try to win games by using their players to maximum capacity by clever passing  and play - but they lack real speed.   It was once again evident in the try of Kock in the Las Vegas match.  The defender should have tried to tackle  him - but he just did not have the speed to do that. 

 Mike, I dont think NZL have an issues with pace. Infact, if we stood both teams 3 fastest on the tryline and told them to race to the halfway line, we might lose overall.

That try we scored where Kyle Brown tapped back off a stray NZL lineout was a classic reason why possession is key in 7's. NZL were lying deeper, SA were slightly flatter as we were expecting to defend. The minute we won the ball, we had 4 guys at full pace against some pretty flat footed defenders as one of them rushed up and that creates holes that these athletes are well versed in exploiting. This what makes them the best 7's players in the world. The fact the NZL forced us to the corner was a positive thing on their part as from that situation, a simple switch play should see you under the posts.

It was a good game and at one stage NZL had completed 21 passes to our 0. I thought we were tickets then but we absorbed pressure well. By the start of the second half, SA had completed 43 passes to NZL's 23 so that just shows where the game was won and lost. We starved NZL of possession. When two teams as defensively sound as NZL and SA meet, its always gona take a moment of magic or individual brilliance. Hang onto the ball long enough and it has to come. Much easier to attack than defend as we all know.

 Sasue

Sorry to upset you.  Mickelson is a player that is faster than he appears to be - he is a long striding runner and I may have under-assessed his real speed.   I think there are one or two real speedsters in the AV Sevens - but on the whole the Blitzbokke is a much speedier side  than the AB side.   At least that much is implied by the commentators - who constantly refer to the speed issue of the SA players.