It was a pain of disappointment as the Springbok Women’s Sevens missed a perfect opportunity at the death to beat Japan, eventually going down 14-12 in the Rugby World Cup Sevens Challenge Cup.
The Women’s side had a lot of support from the local fans, but their own mistakes caused their demise as they took the lead early but then had lapses in their defence that were costly.
Their player of the match Nadine Roos was beyond disappointed when asked afterwards, as she wanted to win for the home fans.
"It was very disappointing to get a second loss in our own country. We really looked to win this game but we made some unfortunate errors. We didn’t keep the ball when we had to and we didn’t stick to our processes the whole time, and that’s the result you get when that happens,” Roos said.
"You get quite tense when you see time running out on the clock but you try to stay calm and composed. Sometimes the pressure gets to you and, at the end of the day, I think that’s what happened to us."
Roos and captain Sizo Solontsi both scored for the Blitzbok Women but it wasn’t enough in the end as a knock-on on the Japanese goalline cost them dearly.
They will now face Colombia in the 13th-16th place playoffs at 15.27 (CAT, GMT+2). All games are live on Supersport.
