Wounded Blitzboks knocked out in Hong Kong Sevens quarters

The high-flying Blitzboks had their hopes of a first-ever Hong Kong Sevens title ended by Australia in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Missing a trio of playmakers, including captain Selvyn Davids, the Blitzboks suffered their first defeat of the tournament in a 15-0 loss to Australia.

The Springbok Sevens had come into the match on a high after convincingly beating Samoa to qualify for the quarter-finals on top of their pool.

However, the Blitzboks were handed a massive blow shortly before the match as it was confirmed that Davids had been suspended for the rest of the tournament after being handed a farcical three-game ban for a tackle against Samoa.

To add salt to the wounds, Ronald Brown was ruled out of the match due to injury, with veteran Justin Geduld already serving a ban for his red card in the opening pool match against Ireland.

How it played out

An error-prone first half from both teams saw Australia go into the break leading 5-0 thanks to a try from Nathan Lawson.

Despite missing their key players, the Blitzboks still managed to carve a couple of opportunities, but could not capitalise.

Australia made no such mistake in the second half when, after forcing a handling error from Christie Grobbelaar and winning a quick-tap penalty inside the Blitzboks’ 22, Maurice Longbottom went over the tryline out wide.

Longbottom dotted down again two minutes later for his brace, ultimately sealing the game for Australia and sending them to the quarter-finals.

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