The Springbok Sevens team suffered their second defeat in their pool, but still managed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Sevens after they lost a narrow contest to France 19-17.
The Blitzboks will now face Sevens magicians Fiji in their quarterfinal after being the beneficiaries of Uruguay’s shock 19-17 win over Great Britain which left both those sides and South Africa on five points in their pool, but the Blitzboks qualified with a better points difference.
However, the start for new coach Sandile Ngcobo isn’t going as planned as the Blitzboks look brittle and vulnerable and unless they can find something overnight, their stay in the Cup competition may be a short one.
They were pipped in an amazing end to end contest by the French after Aaron Grandidier scored his second try late in the game to give them the lead, which they narrowly held onto.
South Africa scored twice early, first through Ronald Brown and then Impi Visser to take an early 10-0 lead, but Grandidier hit back to put France on the board.
Then a try on the stroke of halftime by Selvyn Davids gave the Blitzboks a halftime 17-7 lead. The second half was all France though as they stretched the Blitzboks for Leraitre Paul to narrow the lead before Grandidier scored two minutes from time to seal the victory.
Fiji will face the Blitzboks at 5.50am CAT in their quarterfinal on Sunday. All games are on SuperSport.