The Springbok Sevens team won a heart-stopping quarterfinal to keep their Hong Kong Sevens dreams alive, beating Kenya 26-22 in the final play of the game.
It was a miraculous comeback after Kenya led 22-14 with less than two minutes to go, and after the Shujaa had dominated the game throughout, but showed the heart of a Blitzboks side not ready to throw the towel in.
Given they have never won the Hong Kong Sevens tournament and lost their last four quarterfinals in the city in a row, the tournament has always held a bit of a curse for the Blitzboks, although coach Philip Snyman was confident of breaking their duck this weekend.
They will now face New Zealand in Sunday’s semifinal as they look to take a step closer to the final and that elusive title.
This time around, although Kenya played superbly and were physically superior, it was the well-timed substitutions that brought the Blitzboks back into the game, as they scored twice in 90 seconds to steal the game away and break Kenyan hearts.
It also served as a reminder of how cruel World Rugby’s decision was to limit the World SVNS Series to just eight teams, and how much Kenya was missed from the circuit.
Still, it was the Shujaa who started poorly, as Selvyn Davids grabbed a try two minutes in from the back of a scrum where he waltzed in after fooling the defence.
But Kenya hit back with two exceptionally well worked tries, as John Ohoth Okeyo and Denis Abukuse both scored to take the lead for their side.
Yet they allowed the South Africans back in as Vincent Onyala Owino was yellow carded just before the halftime whistle and Donavan Don exploited the space outside to put the South Africans back in the lead.
A powerful run by Kevin Wekesa Nyongesa gave Kenya the lead and they used this dominance, especially when Davids was yellow carded and they had the advantage, to send Festus Shiasi over and give them an eight point lead.
The Blitzboks brought on Shakes Soyizwapi, who made his debut at this tournament a whole 10 years ago, and Quewin Nortje, the speedster, who missed the entire World Series with injury, and it immediately paid dividends.
Nortje saw space behind the defence and punted forward, racing after the ball and kicking ahead to collect and score a superb individual try.
That left the Blitzboks one point adrift, and they won the kickoff, and then a penalty at the breakdown to put Kenya on the back foot, before the ball eventually went to Soyizwapi to score the try and break out the celebrations.
They will now face the All Black Sevens, who beat France in their quarterfinal at 8am (CAT, GMT+2) on Sunday with the final set for 1.14pm.
The Springbok Women’s Sevens team disappointed in their ninth-place semifinal, going down 19-14 to Great Britain after earlier beating them in their pool encounter. They face Argentina at 4.46am for the 11th spot playoff.