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Blitzbok magic as they finally qualify for Olympics

rugby23 June 2024 17:40
By:Brenden Nel
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Shilton van Wyk © Gallo Images

The Springbok Sevens team finally achieved the goal that had eluded them all season, as they beat Great Britain 14-5 in a tense contest at the Monaco Repechage tournament to book their place for the Paris Olympics next month.

After failing to qualify through the HSBC Sevens Series and then being dumped out of the African Cup through a shock loss to Kenya last year, there was only one chance left for the Blitzboks to qualify and that was through the final tournament in Monaco.

After a tense weekend in Monaco, the first goal was always going to be to get to the final to give themselves a chance of qualification and the Blitzboks achieved that by breezing through the pool and cup stages.

And in the final against Great Britain, who beat them recently in the Singapore Sevens tournament, they needed to be on point.

They got their first half off to the greatest of starts as Quewin Nortje went in early to put them on the board and Tristan Leyds kicked a perfect conversion from the sideline.

Great Britain struck back after several phases to score but missed their own conversion before an amazing bit of skill by captain Selvyn Davids proved the difference in the match and would ultimately go down as the match-winning moment.

From the kickoff, which looked like going directly into touch, a Great Britain player knocked it back into the field of play, bouncing into Davids’s hands, who, in a split second popped the ball up for Shilton van Wyk, who was steaming through to take the ball and run 70 metres to score.

Even though Great Britain tried their utmost, the Blitzboks defence held firm as they held out for a famous victory to claim their place in Paris.

JOB DONE

Before this tournament France as the host nation qualified automatically while the top four teams in the 2023 World Sevens Series - New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia qualified through the Series route.

The other qualifiers came through the regional qualifying tournaments with Uruguay winning in South America, Ireland taking the Europe crown and USA winning in North America.

Samoa are Oceania champions and Japan took the Asian tournament, with Kenya, by beating the Blitzboks in Harare last year, the African champions.

After a year where there was a change of coach, with former captain Philip Snyman taking over mid season as results went against the team, they finished seventh in the last World Series and looked to be building towards next season.

But everything in the season depended on Monaco and qualifying for Paris, otherwise the season would be a complete failure.

Snyman, who had to deal with some internal issues in the team with some players being disruptive, did his job well and has now taken them to the Olympics.

The Blitzboks breezed through the tournament, beating Mexico 44-0 on Friday, Tonga 31-7 and Chile 26-7 on Saturday.

In the quarterfinal they beat Uganda 26-0 and Canada 28-0 in the semifinals en route to the final.

The men’s tournament will get under way before the Opening Ceremony on 26 July with the pool phase and quarterfinals scheduled on 24 and 25 July. T

he semifinals, classification matches and medal events are scheduled on 27 July.

China qualified in Monaco for the final place in the Women’s tournament, beating a brave Kenyan Women's side 24-7 in the final.

France, as the host nation, qualified alongside the top four teams in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and USA while Brazil (South America), Canada (North America), Great Britain (Europe), South Africa (Africa), Fiji (Oceania) and Japan (Asia) were the regional qualifiers.

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