First SA Olympic medal in Paris: Blitzboks beat Australia for Sevens bronze

The Blitzboks finished their Olympic Games Sevens tournament on the best possible note by clinching a thrilling 26-19 win over Australia in the Bronze medal match at the Stade de France in Paris on Saturday night.

After going down to hosts France in the semifinals earlier in the day, the Blitzboks were desperate to walk away with a medal, and they did that after fighting back from a halftime deficit against an in-form Australia, whose only previous loss had come in their semi against Fiji.

In the gold medal match France were inspired by their talisman Antoine Dupont, who scored two tries and assisted one to help them claim a famous 28-7 win over Fiji to become the Paris Olympic Games Rugby Sevens gold medalists.

Poor start

In the bronze match it was a disastrous start for the Blitzboks after they did all the early work, dominating possession and territory as they took play into the 22m, but a knock-on allowed Australia to counter-attack at pace and go the length of the field for Nathan Lawson to score, converted by Dietrich Roache.

The Blitzboks however hit back before the break through their talisman, captain Selvyn Davids, who chipped over the Australia defence and ran in for an unconverted try, as they trailed 7-5 at halftime.

It was a great start to the second half for the Blitzboks as Tristan Leyds streaked down the touchline and Zain Davids followed up superbly to go over for a try to take the lead, converted by Leyds.

Australian captain Nick Malouf was also red carded for a dangerous tackle in the build up to the score to deal a double blow to his team.

Straight from the kick-off the Blitzboks secured the ball and attacked again, with Zain Davids busting through for a quickfire double, with Leyds landing the conversion, giving them a 19-7 lead with less than three minutes remaining.

Australia however wouldn’t go down without a fight and hit straight back with a quick double to level the scores, Corey Toole kicking ahead and chasing it down to score, while Henry Paterson finished after an impressive attack from the kick-off, with one conversion from Roache making it 19-all.

With just seconds remaining the Blitzboks secured the kick-off and attacked, Shaun Williams feeding Selvyn Davids to streak down the touch and over the tryline, with him giving the ball back to Williams to dot it down for the win.

Playoff games

Earlier on Saturday, the Blitzboks saw their gold medal hopes dashed by a fired-up hosts France, who beat them 19-5 in their semifinal clash.

After a scoreless first half where defence dominated, the Blitzboks struck first in the second half, with Tristan Leyds going in for an unconverted try in the corner.

The Blitzboks then fell apart in the final three and a half minutes of the match as France powered back with two converted tries to Ryan Rebbadj, while Jordan Sepho went over after the fulltime hooter to add the cherry to the cake.

In the other playoff games New Zealand finished fifth after beating Ireland 17-7, while Argentina took seventh spot with a comfortable 19-0 win over USA.

Kenya upset Samoa 10-5 to take ninth spot, while Uruguay ended their campaign on a high with a 21-10 win over Japan to finish 11^th.