The Springbok Sevens side will face Australia in the semifinals of the Vancouver Sevens after ending their pool fixtures unbeaten and look set for another showdown with South Sea magicians Fiji if they get to the final.
The Blitzboks followed up their win over Great Britain in the opening game with a powerful win over tournament surprises Spain 28-7 before beating New Zealand 17-12 in their final match to secure their place in the semifinals.
Spain qualified after their shock win over New Zealand to face the Fijians in the other semifinal. Australia scored a narrow win over Argentina, beat France but were walloped by Fiji 35-14 in their final pool game. They qualified via their two wins.
The Blitzboks, sporting one of the more powerful line-ups in the season, will have their work cut out for them though as Fiji are four points ahead of them on the standings and they will need to win the tournament to pick up more points than Fiji to have a chance of claiming the Series title in the final tournament in New York next weekend.
Against Spain it was first half tries by Ronald Brown and Sebastian Jobb that got them on track, followed by two early second half scores by Shilton van Wyk and Tristan Leyds that gave them a 28-0 cushion before Spain’s Jeremy Trevithick pulled one back at the end.
The pool was going to come down to the New Zealand game and Impi Visser scored early to get the Blitzboks onto the board with Van Wyk putting the Blitzboks 12-0 up at the break with a try late in the first half.
New Zealand scored early in the second half through Rob Rush but a try by the veteran Siviwe Soyizwapi put the Blitzboks out of reach with time running out.
Frank Vaenuku added a late try to make the scoreline respectable, but the Blitzboks were never going to lose that game.
Their semifinal will take place at 10.33pm (CAT, GMT+2) and is live on SuperSport. The fin