Blitzboks' Olympic campaign hangs by a thread after opening loss

The Springbok Sevens Olympic campaign hangs by a thread after they went down 10-5 to Ireland in their opening game at the Olympic 7s in Paris on Wednesday.

The Blitzboks could not argue that they were the second best side on the park during the game, although a controversial call ensured Ireland’s second and decisive try and killed off their chances.

It now means that their second game against arch-rivals New Zealand is a must win if they are to go through to the semifinals, and they need to win well.

With the winners and runners up qualifying for the quarterfinals of the three pools, only the two best third place finishers will qualify.

If the Boks lose to New Zealand they will need a big win over Japan and some luck to qualify.

The Blitzboks lose their #Paris2024 opener against Ireland with Selvyn Davids bagging their only try.#CloserToYourChampions pic.twitter.com/0o4eKJdEHV

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 24, 2024

A loss would end their campaign before the final pool game against Japan on Thursday, and could see them out of the Olympics before the opening ceremony takes place on Friday.

While Ireland had around 90 per cent possession, and the Blitzboks touched the ball for around five seconds in the first half, they rallied late but ran out of time eventually to go down fighting.

The controversial call, which came halfway in the second half, went against Ryan Oosthuizen as the referee called for TMO intervention for supposed foul play.

But replays showed the hit wasn’t high, and it was Oosthuizen who took the brunt of the hit in an awkward tackle.

A LITTLE TOO LATE 

Nevertheless, it was decided that there was foul play, despite the lack of evidence, and Oosthuizen was yellow carded and spent the final two minutes in the sinbin.

Shortly after the restart, Terry Kennedy wrongfooted the defence on the blindside and scored, taking his side to 10-0 up.

Selvyn Davids doubled with Rosko Specman for a late try but the crucial restart after the hooter didn’t travel 10 metres and Ireland were let off the hook.

It came after a first half where the Blitzboks had no ball, and Ireland fluffed two chances to score, with Terry Kennedy’s grubber and chase rolling over the dead ball line before he could dive and Jordan Conroy losing the ball over the line.

Tristan Leyds was lucky on the halftime whistle not to be carded for head on head clash as the teams went to halftime with Ireland leading 5-0.

Quewin Nortje was beaten by a cruel bounce from a Davids grubber in the only other scoring possibility from the first half.

The Blitzboks will now face New Zealand at 9:30pm CAT (SA, GMT+2).

In other early games, home favourites France were held to a 12-all draw by the USA, while Australia opened their campaign with a 21-14 win over Samoa.

World Series champions Argentina breezed past Kenya 31-12 and Fiji had an easy win over Uruguay 40-12.