The Springbok Sevens side suffered a massive setback to their hopes of winning the World Championship when they were shocked by Great Britain in extra time, losing to a golden point try 19-14.
The Blitzboks need to make the final to be assured of the World Championship title, and are currently four points ahead of Argentina, who are in second spot on the log.
But their start didn’t go well as Great Britain, who are desperate to keep their core team spot and are on the verge of being relegated to SVNS2, took advantage of two yellow cards to the Blitzboks to post the famous extra-time victory.
The Blitzboks have struggled against Great Britain, and beat them in extra time in Valladolid last weekend, also on a golden point try.
Finley Lloyd-Gilmour scored the winning try to give his side the 19-14 win in the opening game, making it a tough road for the Blitzboks to qualify for the quarterfinals as they still have Fiji and Kenya to play.
Great Britain were in superb form and scored first through Marcus Kershaw, who overran a tackle to score in the corner.
They went further ahead when a forward pass by Ryan Oosthuizen gave GB possession in the Blitzboks red zone and Darcy Graham, the Scotland winger, went over to make it 14-0.
GB were then reduced to six men when Kaleem Barreto was carded for cynical play in the red zone and Ricardo Duarttee pounced to reduce the deficit to seven.
Duarttee intercepted just after the halftime break to run the field and level the scores, but then the Blitzboks were hit by Sebastian Jobb being yellow carded for playing the man in the air.
There was drama when Matt Davidson thought he had scored the winning try, only for the TMO to disallow it because of a knock-on in the build up, forcing the game into extra time.
Duarttee then was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle, reducing the Blitzboks to six and GB had enough firepower for the winning try.
The Blitzboks now have a must win game against Kenya at 8.36pm, with Kenya being pummelled in their opening game by Fiji 31-12.
As the other results of the nearest challengers - Argentina and Australia - are important, and both came away with wins in their first games.
Argentina beat Germany 35-19 in their first game while Australia beat Uruguay 43-12.
The Springbok Women's team lost their opening game against France 22-7. The face New Zelaand and Argentina in their next two pool games.