Bad to worse for Blitzboks

The Blitzboks were knocked out of the London Sevens title race and automatic 2024 Olympics qualification after defeat to New Zealand in their final pool clash on Saturday.

The South Africans had it all to play for in their last match of the day against the 2022-23 Series champions after losing and drawing their first two Pool A games at Twickenham.

After going down by 19-15 to Great Britain first up, the USA scored two late tries to draw 26-26 with the Blitzboks, who played much better in their second clash of the day.

The Kiwis raced into a 20-0 half-time lead thanks to a first-half hat-trick of tries from Akuila Rokolisoa and a Che Clark touchdown.

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Glimmer of hope

Blitzboks powerhouse Impi Visser provided a glimmer of hope after the restart when he raced in under the posts, but a brace of tries from Xavier Tito-Harris all but killed off the game for SA, before consolation scores for Mfundo Ndhlovu and Ryan Oosthuizen in a 32-21 defeat.

The Blitzboks needed to qualify for the cup quarter-finals in London to stay in the running for automatic Olympics qualification, leaving Australia and Samoa to vie for the honours, and SA now having to go the African qualifier route.

Sandile Ngcobo’s charges, though, will need to pick themselves for a ninth-placed semi-final duel with Japan on Sunday (12:13pm).

This story first appeared on sarugbymag.co.za. It is republished here with permission.