The Springbok Sevens side will face New Zealand in an epic semifinal late on Sunday evening after they went through their pool rounds unbeaten at the HSBC SVNS World Championship in Los Angeles in the early hours of Sunday morning.
After coming from behind to beat France 19-10, the Blitzboks beat Great Britain 12-7 in their second game, which was a real arm wrestle. They then turned up the heat to beat reigning World SVNS Series champions Argentina 29-21 in a pulsating game to win their pool and book their place in the semifinals.
That means they will face New Zealand, who beat Fiji in their first game, and Australia 21-19 in their third, but were shocked by Sevens sensations Spain 7-5 in their second pool game.Spain downed Sevens specialists Fiji in their final game to win the pool, and will face Argentina in the other semifinal.
The grit and determination of the win was apparent in all the Blitzboks games on the day, as they went 10-0 down against the Olympic Champions France before recovering to score 19 unanswered points.
Against Great Britain they were pinned in their own half for most of the first half, but used their kicking game well to get out and score two excellent tries that saw them take the narrow win.
The first came from Ronald Brown, revelling in his return to the Blitzbok side, as he was in the far corner touchline, launched what looked like an up and under over the defence and had the speed to follow up and collect to run 70 metres to score.
Shilton van Wyk scored the crucial second try on the wing and without space by grubbering past the defender and collecting to give the Blitzboks a 12-0 lead, which they defended late into the game.
The final game would determine the pool winners, and the Blitzboks have had epic tassels with Los Pumas this season, with the Argentine consistency winning them the last two tournaments and the SVNS League title.
Brown scored the first try just two minutes in, and it was clear that both sides were leaning heavily on attack. But two tries within a minute from Matteo Graziano and German Schulz gave Argentina the lead.
The Blitzboks levelled the scores at halftime with a late Ryan Oosthuizen try. The South Africans struck first in the second half after Van Wyk saw a gap and sent Mfundo Ndhlovu a metre short, with Van Wyk feeding a flying Siviwe Soyizwapi to get over the line with the next pass.
They then extended their lead with a quick tap penalty and a one-two pass between Van Wyk and Tristan Leyds, to put the former over for his second try. Selvyn Davids then made sure of the victory with a late individual try where he took the gap and carried the defender 20 metres to get close enough to score.
Santigo Zangara scored a late consolation try but this was a classic dominant performance by the Blitzboks.
They will face New Zealand at 10.46pm on Sunday night. The final will be at 2.41am Monday morning
The Women Boks tasted defeat after their opening win against Ireland, going down to China 26-12 in their second game. They face Argentina in their final Playoff Championship pool game at 7pm on Sunday night.
Kenya’s Men’s side bounced back to beat Portugal 26-14 after their opening defeat to Samoa in the Playoff Championship. They face USA in their final pool game at 8.28pm.
Kenya’s Women’s side disappointed by losing their second consecutive game after their opening loss to Spain. This time it was a 28-10 defeat at the hands of Brazil. They face Colombia in their final pool game at 7.44pm
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SEVENS
MENS SEMIFINALS
(all times CAT, GMT+2)
22h24 Spain v Argentina
22h46 South Africa v New Zealand
WOMEN’S SEMIFINALS
21h40 Australia v Canada
22h02 New Zealand v USA
PLAYOFF CHAMPIONSHIP
WOMEN BOKS FINAL POOL FIXTURE
19h00 v Argentina
KENYA FINAL POOL FIXTURES
MEN
20h28 v USA
WOMEN
19h44 v Colombia