Samoan penalty denies Cape Town their dream final

A penalty conceded at the kick-off by the Blitzboks in extra time enabled Samoa to advance through their semifinal with a tight 10-7 win to set up a final against New Zealand in the HSBC Cape Town Sevens on Sunday.

The hosts fought back in a tense and nervy semifinal to level the scores at 7-all a minute and 40 seconds from the end. At that point it looked like the momentum was with the Blitzboks, but they’d struggled to break down the determined and physical Samoan defence, partially due to the opposition's excellence but also partially due to their own high error rate, and they failed to nail it like maybe they should have in normal time.

At the start of extra time the Blitzboks knocked on the kick-off and then played the ball in an offside position. It was a soft penalty but it was enough to present the Samoans with a kickable penalty, much to the chagrin of a 25 000 Cape Town crowd that booed them for their decision.

But it was the right call, the game was there to be won by the Pacific islanders, and Faafoi Falaniko handled the pressure well enough to nail the kick and force a semifinal exit for a host team that perhaps succumbed a bit to nerves given their indecisiveness when they had the ball during normal time.

Ryan Oosthuizen scored the equalising try for the South Africans as they capitalised on a yellow card that had reduced the Samoans to six men at that point. Ricky Duarttee’s conversion ensured that the Blitzboks drew level in the game for the first time since Vaovasa Afa Sua crossed for the only Samoan try in the third minute.

But the moment of equilibrium was short-lived as the soft penalty that ended the local team’s challenge spoilt the party that was brewing with a potential Blitzbok/New Zealand final on the cards.

The All Black Sevens team continued their recovery from their shock defeat to Spain in their opening game of the tournament on Friday by beating the USA 33-17 through a late flurry of scoring in a semifinal where the Americans, with the crowd behind them, came back from a 19-5 deficit to challenge strongly before losing it in the last two minutes.

The women’s final will see Australia bidding to follow up their success in the World Cup here two months ago with a repeat final against the New Zealand side they beat on that occasion.