Cape Town - Springbok Sevens coach, Neil Powell, was far from pleased with his team's performance after day one of the London Sevens.
The Blitzboks started out with two wins in Pool D, easily defeating Russia 31-0 and Canada 17-7.
They came unstuck, however, in their final pool match against a fired up Samoan side, going down 21-12 and now will face New Zealand in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
Powell was particularly unhappy at the overall team effort on display on the day, as well as the unnecessary errors that crept into South Africa's play.
"It was disappointing losing to Samoa, but even more so because we did not bring the effort as a team. That is not who we are as a team. We could not find any momentum all day. Against Samoa our problems were compounded by lots of individual errors," said Powell.
Powell, however, said his side would regroup and come back stronger.
"This is now time to get together as a team, regroup and show that we really want to remain the champions. The quarter-finals will be tough, as New Zealand play with a lot of confidence. We need to play at least four times better than today if we want to make an impact on Sunday," he said.
The match against New Zealand kicks off at 12:42 on Sunday (SA time).