Argentina compound Blitzbok misery

South African fans at the Rugby World Cup Sevens did not enjoy a good start to the third day as the Blitzboks followed up their exit in the quarterfinal stage with a defeat to Argentina.

The loss in the very late game on Saturday night knocked the South Africans out of their own World Cup when it came to competing for the main trophy, but they still had the placing playoffs to decide positions five to eight to play on Sunday.

They started off against Argentina, and although they came back twice during the game, the South Americans were never headed and always looked like the better team. Yes, pressure probably accounted for their early exit from the tournament on Saturday, but at the same time, the Blitzboks just aren’t playing well at the moment and haven’t been for a while.

It took just a minute for Argentina to get their first try on the board through Luciano Gonzalez, and then Joaquin del la Vega thundered over to make it 12-0 after just two minutes. The Blitzboks brought the already sizeable early morning crowd to their feet with a brilliant try to JC Pretorius and then they started to gain proper momentum as a multi-phase build-up sent Angelo Davids away in the corner.

With the scores level at 12-all at halftime, it looked like the Boks had the momentum but one of the things the Sevens Boks have lost over time is their old obvious physicality advantage against most opponents. It showed in the second half of this game, with the Pumas being as much broadsword as rapier in the way they simply forced their will on the Boks, with a strong, physical and direct build-up culminating in Matias Osadczuk forcing the ball down near the posts.

The Boks struck back with an excellent try to Shaun Williams, which was converted by himself to bring the scores level again but somehow it always looked like Argentina, as front-runners through most of the game, had more energy.

When Luciano Gonzalez received the ball out wide in a position where he was between two Bok defenders he easily waltzed through for what proved the winning score and a result that now sends the Boks into a 7/8th place playoff against either France or Samoa at 18.15.

Sadly, that will conclude the Blitzbok World Cup campaign as well as Neil Powell’s stellar nine-year reign as coach, and it will be almost three hours before the game they would have been aiming to be part of, meaning the Championship final.

Unfortunately, it is hard to look for excuses for the Boks, in this tournament they just haven’t been good enough.