OPINION: Relief more than anything after Blitzboks qualify for Olympics

Relief was the prevailing feeling when the Blitzboks snuck into the 2024 Olympic Games by winning the World Rugby Sevens Repechage tournament in Monaco over the weekend.

It was the final opportunity for teams wanting to make it into the Paris Olympics, which gets under way next month, and just one position was available for the winning side.

Going into the repechage the Blitzboks were strong favourites as the top-ranked team in the tournament, but they knew they would face a stiff challenge from Great Britain, who finished just one position below them in the past season’s World Sevens Series standings.

Great Britain had also finished their World Series campaign well, outperforming the Blitzboks in two of the last three events, on their way to a silver medal in Los Angeles and a bronze medal in Singapore.

And so it proved to be as the top two ranked teams cruised into the final, before battling it out in a tight match that ended with South Africa claiming a 14-5 win to qualify for the showpiece event.

Comeback complete

Blitzboks interim coach Philip Snyman admitted that it wasn’t the way they wanted to do it but that they were grateful to have finally qualified.

“We had some bad months, yes, but the comeback is now complete. We got ourselves into the mess of having to qualify via repechage, but credit to the way the players responded,” said Snyman.

However, the Blitzboks should never have needed to qualify through the repechage tournament, after they botched their previous two chances to qualify.

Their first opportunity was to finish in the top four on the World Sevens Series log in the 2022/23 season, but after finishing in the top four over the previous 10 years, they slipped up by finishing seventh.

Their second chance was then to win the African Sevens tournament, but despite being overwhelming favourites they were upset by Kenya in the final.

That left the repechage as their last shot and thankfully they proved their mettle, despite a strong challenge from Great Britain.

The Blitzboks are now in a tough pool at the Games featuring Ireland, who finished second in the World Series, and old foes New Zealand who finished third, while Japan rounds out the group.