The Springbok Sevens outlasted a desperate and willing Spain 14-12 in the quarterfinals of the HSBC SVNS Valladolid on Saturday and will face Argentina in the semifinals on Sunday at Estadio Jose Zorrilla, in search of a sixth consecutive tournament title.
The playoff against Argentina will kick off at 11:06am (SA time) and will be broadcast live on SuperSport, but they will have to make a big step up after a tough second day in Spain.
It was a desperate second-half effort against the hosts by the Blitzboks, who lost their Pool A decider to Australia earlier on Saturday.
Two tries after the break, and some desperate defence, saw the Blitzboks sneak past Spain, who did all but win the match played in front of an appreciative and vocal home crowd.
Spain held a 12-0 lead going into the break and looked set to secure the biggest win of the weekend, but the Blitzboks are not currently rated the best team in the sevens world for nothing.
Impi Visser struck first before Jayden Nell scored his first try for South Africa with 90 seconds left on the clock, with Ricardo Duarttee’s conversion giving the Blitzboks a two-point lead. They then managed to play out the last minute for a remarkable win.
Spain had all the possession, control and skill in the opening half. They scored early after a great opening spell, keeping the ball alive and with good support play opened a gap in the Blitzboks defence to take a 7-0 lead.
The Blitzboks did not touch the ball in the opening three minutes of the match and were swamped in all areas by Spain, who scored a second try for a 12-0 lead.
A yellow card to Spain for a high tackle on Tristan Leyds broke the opening spell the hosts had over the SA side, but that was short-lived as an error by Selvyn Davids handed momentum back to the hosts, who held on into the halftime break.
The second half was much better by the South Africans. Visser scored with four minutes left after Leyds broke away in counterattack to cut the lead to five points.
Spain then intercepted a Selvyn Davids pass but a desperate cover tackle by Sebastiaan Jobb knocked the ball out of the Spanish player’s hands under the uprights to save a certain try.
At that stage, Spain made 47 passes and the Blitzboks only 15.
Spain conceded another yellow card and this time the Blitzboks delivered a fatal blow. Davids redeemed himself with a blindside break from a scrum and numerous passes and a kick to Nell resulted in the try, which was converted by Duarttee for the lead.
AUSSIES RULE
Earlier on Saturday, Australia repeated their pool victory over South Africa in New York in a match where the Blitzboks’ second half was poor. The Aussies managed two late tries to pull away for a deserved win as they played till the final whistle.
The Blitzboks held a 14-10 lead until two minutes from full time, but then fell away as Australia scored twice.
The South Africans lost Dewald Human after three minutes with a leg injury, but Quewin Nortje scored soon after to bring the smiles back on South African faces and Leyds, who replaced Human, converted.
That smile turned into a frown though as, after a long spell with possession and attacking well, a dropped ball was snapped up by Australia who scored from the counter-attack.
They added the next try, on the buzzer, after a good attacking move to take a 10-7 lead into halftime.
The second half saw another mixed bag from the Blitzboks. Visser dropped a pass with the tryline begging, but Ryan Oosthuizen would be the first to admit on the quality of the pass.
They kept the pressure up though and Gino Cupido scored a good try after an angled run.
The score extended the lead to 14-10 and things were looking up, but Australia had other ideas as they scored next and from the resulting restart, Cupido and Leyds looked at each other while the ball bounced between them and into the hands of an Aussie attacker, who ran in to score a fourth try.
Scorers:
South Africa 14 (7), Australia 24 (10)
SA – Tries: Quewin Nortje, Gino Cupido. Conversions: Tristan Leyds, Ricardo Duarttee.
Australia – Tries: Harry Wilson, Henry Hutchison, Ben Dowling, Josh Turner. Conversions: Dowling, James McGregor.
South Africa 14 (0), Spain 12 (12)
SA – Tries: Impi Visser, Jayden Nell. Conversions: Ricardo Duarttee (2).
Spain – Tries: Josep Serres, Manu Moreno. Conversion: Juan Ramos.