JC Praetorium
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Blitzboks star JC Pretorius was left heartbroken after South Africa lost to Samoa in their Cape Town Sevens Cup semi-final on Sunday.
The Springbok Sevens lost 10-7 after extra time when Faafoi Falaniko kicked in a penalty that broke the hearts of the locals.
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Pretorius said afterwards that the Blitzboks failed to make the most of their chances against an energetic Samoan outfit.
“It’s just heartbreaking, especially the way things went. We played our worst game in the semi-final,” Pretorius told reporters on Sunday.
“We didn’t capitalize on opportunities, when you go out in the knockout stages you need to take advantage of your opportunities and we weren’t clinical enough.
“Before the game they said they were going to counter us and in the first half we didn’t take care of the ball and that’s what went wrong. We slipped the chances we had.”
Pretorius confirmed that the Cape Town event would be his last Sevens tournament.
The Blitzbok stalwart is making the transition to the XV as he will look to represent the Lions in the Challenge Cup and the United Rugby Championship.
“It’s rugby, especially coming to Cape Town, there’s extra pressure on us. We can blame ourselves and that cost us the game,” Pretorius said.
“This will really hurt, but that’s Sevens, you only have five minutes to be sad. Especially [for] As this will be my last Sevens tournament, I am going back to the Lions.”
The Blitzboks will play the USA in the bronze final at 18:59 on Sunday.
