FULL MARKS to the Springbok Sevens team for its excellent win in Tokyo last weekend.
To beat Gordon Tietjens' New Zealand mob as well as they did meant the men in green had to come a long way in a week.
Seven days earlier it had been a truly staggering sight in Hong Kong, when South Africa failed to make the Cup quarter-finals, to see Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu do something I had never seen him do before.
In full view of the departing crowd at the end of day two, I saw Treu step forward and prevent three of his players from leaving the field at the end of that day's final game. Instead Treu took the three men out onto the darkening field, and standing near the halfway mark, he appeared to very publicly admonish them collectively and individually.
His verbal spray went on for some minutes. From the commentary box, as we packed our broadcast gear away at the end of a day's work, we could see Treu shout, finger-point, wave his arms about and seriously berate three players. They were his captain Frankie Horne, Paul Delport and Chris Dry.
