The Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWC7s) have come and gone. Fiji and Australia, the two teams left standing at the end.

Cape Town did its job. The Mother City were fantastic hosts, and there really is no better backdrop than Table Mountain and Lion’s Head.

The weather played along as well. While the expected rain mostly remained at bay, the conditions got quite tough, come the late games.

Still, the crowd stayed right where they were, anxiously awaiting their beloved Blitzboks. However, when that moment came, at 22h33 on Saturday evening, delight soon turned into despair.

This crowd, some of whom have been there since the very first game at 8h15, witnessed a Bok implosion of extraordinary proportions. Our Springbok sevens team played unrecognizably bad.

We can speculate about why that was. Emotions of Neill Powell leaving, the expectations of the home crowd, the poor schedule or even injuries.

While all the above-mentioned reasons played their part, the scheduling is one that SA Rugby had control over. The tournament’s schedule was knockout-based, with the bigger nations handed layups on day one.

On Saturday, the event shifted into a new gear. The Blitzboks had a RWC7s quarter-final bout on the cards with Ireland. Most expected it to be a walk-over for the Boks. However, with high-stakes matches from the very start of the tournament, there is no room for error and no time for you to find your feet.

You want to play as often as possible because the longer the break between games, the tougher it’s going to be to get back in the swing of things. It was a fatal error made by South African Rugby.

Holding fans hostage

Dylan Jack explained that the decision regarding when the Blitzboks were going to play, apparently came from SA Rugby.

“World Rugby left that decision open to SA Rugby,” said Dylan.

“We were told that the idea was that if the Blitzboks played any earlier, the fear was that fans would leave, and for the final couple games it would look bad for SA Rugby.

“But, you’re going to have to take that risk, because most of the people were there to watch the Blitzboks, and those that will stay will stay.”

There is so much that could have been done differently to improve the fan experience at the RWC7s. Dylan Jack and Martin Myers joined me in conversation on the Honest Truth this week to give their opinions on the matter, and you can have a listen, here:

They also shared their thoughts on what could go down in the penultimate round of the Rugby Championship.