Blitzboks lose to Ireland in Olympic Sevens opener

The Blitzboks got their Olympic campaign off to a poor start as they were beaten 10-5 by Ireland in their opening game at the Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday evening.

With the top two teams from each of the three pools, and the two best third placed teams reaching the quarterfinals, the Blitzboks will need to beat New Zealand and Japan in their next two pool games to make sure of their progress.

In the match the opening half belonged entirely to Ireland, with them dominating possession and territory, and they thought they had scored the opening try with just over a minute left, only for Jordan Conroy to knock on as he tried to dot down.

After the halftime hooter Ireland finally got their reward as they attacked into the Blitzboks 22m, worked space on the left touchline and Zach Ward offloaded to Conroy to trot over untouched for an unconverted score and 5-0 lead at the break.

The Blitzboks got off to a much better start in the second half and almost scored when Selvyn Davids kicked through, but Quewin Nortje couldn’t gather the viciously bouncing ball as he knocked on with the tryline at his mercy.

With just over three minutes left the Blitzboks were dealt a blow when Ryan Oosthuizen was yellow carded for a high tackle.

Extra man

Ireland immediately utilised the extra man, breaking down the blindside with Terry Kennedy stepping a defender and going over for a 10-0 lead.

With time ticking down the Blitzboks superbly attacked from their own half, getting into Ireland’s 22m and Davids went over to make it 10-5 with time up and just the kick-off.

But Davids promptly went from hero to zero as his kick-off didn’t go 10 metres, which allowed Ireland to tap it and boot it out to end the game.

Other results saw Olympic defending champs Fiji get their campaign under way with a 40-12 win over Uruguay, who made them work for the win after the score was 26-12 halfway through the second half.

Argentina, who finished top of the log in the past seasons Sevens World Series, got off to a decent start with a 31-12 win over Kenya, while France, who won the Sevens World Series Grand Final, stumbled in drawing 12-all against the USA.

In the opening sevens game of the Olympics, Australia was given a strong challenge by Samoa but emerged with a 21-14 win in the end.