TV commentators Gavin Cowley and Greg Clark look back to the Dubai Sevens in which South Africa beat Australia to win round two of the HSBC Sevens World Series.
Gavin Cowley, on South Africa
Firstly South Africa’s victory is a good thing for their home tournament in PE next week, the crowds will be sure to come pumping in. The Blitzboks were very clinical, especially against New Zealand. Neil Powell is a shrewd coach and he has moulded a fantastic team here and has mixed them well. He used his bench, and captain Kyle Brown didn’t even start one game. He is being eased back from injury but was so effective coming in in the way he did. The key was that they were competitive at the breakdown despite not being a big team, but they have electric pace, and there is no substitute for that.
At times, however, they were quite ordinary on day one. They surrendered more possession than most teams on day one if you look at the statistics, but their accuracy rate was so much better on day two and they really stepped up their game. Sevens is about accuracy as much as it is about courage and pace, and they got it spot on to win.
Fans might remember last year when Nelson Mandela died while the Series was in Port Elizabeth and there was a big thing at our tournament. South Africa played for him and were victorious so this year will mark the anniversary and the hosts now are not only defending champions, but come in as the favourites.
Greg Clark, on Australia
After the initial disappointment of losing in the final I think they will be a happy team. That is the best South Africa performance on day two I have seen for some time so they were deserving winners. I am not sure how many people will have tipped Australia to reach the final, but they are fast becoming a day two team. This is a huge stepping stone for them and they will take out a lot of positives of Dubai. It’s the first semi final they have been in in Dubai since 2002, and their first ever final here, so they have broken that ground their psychologically. Sometimes they say you have to lose a final to win a final, so I think they will take a lot of confidence into next week. I am very proud of them and so will coach Geraint John be apart from that last 10 minutes where they had no petrol. They used too much gas coming from 19-0 to beat Fiji in extra time in the semi final which in its own right was something special.
Spare a thought for England too though. You need luck on the injury front to do well in a tournament, but they lost three players on day two.