'Bittersweet' World Cup closes Neil Powell's Sevens chapter: 'I'm honoured to have been part of it'

Outgoing Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell rated his side's World Cup weekend as 'bittersweet' as he moves on to the Sharks to take up the director of rugby role.

The home tournament, hosted in Cape Town over three days, unexpectedly detonated for the Blitzboks as they slumped to defeat against Ireland in their quarter-final clash on Saturday before Argentina beat them 26-19 in their 5th/8th place playoff on Sunday.

They managed to beat Samoa 35-5 in the 7th place playoff to go with their 32-5 win over Chile in their opening clash.

After a gracious lap of honour on Sunday evening, Powell was able to reflect, in full, on a weekend that got away from them.

"It's obviously a bittersweet weekend. It’s not the weekend we planned for, but that shows how brutal Sevens is: if you don’t pitch up or if you’re not clinical you get punished for it and that’s exactly what happened. It’s a pity that out of the four games, we pitched up for the last one," Powell said. 

Probed about just where it went wrong, Powell's reply was that life is a series of ups and downs and this weekend was one of the downs.

"Unfortunately we couldn’t have the fairytale ending we were all hoping for, but that’s life: ups and downs. I’ll always remember this for what it was and for the special moments we had," he said.

"60% of this team hasn’t played in Cape Town before. The hype and energy in the stadium is something you have to get used to and especially in SA, but it’s something I’m sure the guys will manage better when they come back in December and that will be without me."

Powell is not the only person moving on from the Sevens.

As many as four players will be moving on from Sevens, including Muller du Plessis who will follow his mentor to Durban. Angelo