The Springbok Sevens season came crashing down at the London 7s on Saturday as they were soundly beaten by New Zealand 32-21 in their final pool game, meaning they would fail to qualify for the quarterfinals.
The poor day at the office ended any hope of a miracle to qualify via the back door and meant that the team would need to qualify via an African regional tournament for the Olympic Games next year.
The Blitzboks will now face Japan in the ninth place play off on Sunday, far from where the team want to be and way off the standards they have set for themselves.
In the process in London they failed to win a game and truly were never in the running for the last qualification spot.
The Blitzboks lost their opening game 19-15 to hosts Great Britain, who qualified along with New Zealand ahead of them, and then were held to a 26-all draw by USA but by the time they went into their final match they needed to beat New Zealand, who have already sewn up the World Series title last weekend in Toulouse.
The Kiwis sped to a 20-7 lead with South Africa’s only try coming through Impi Visser by the break. Two more tries by Xavier Harris sealed the victory, although late tries by Mfundo Ndhlovu and Ryan Oosthuizen made the scoreline more palatable.
Earlier the Blitzboks led early against the USA with three first half tries to go 19-0 up before the USA stormed back to claim the draw.
But as tournaments go this was another poor one for the Blitzboks and they will need to have a long, hard look at themselves as they start planning for the 2024 season and the Olympic Games - which they still have to qualify for.