The Blitzboks team finished ninth at the Singapore Sevens after two impressive victories on Sunday over the USA and Australia.
The South Africans finished with three victories in their four games, which included a great win over world series leaders Argentina on Saturday. However, a big defeat in their pool opener against Great Britain, where they lost Sebastiaan Jobb to an early red card, meant Blitzboks were condemned to the minor placings.
Still, they showed character in their remaining matches to finish the tournament on a positive note, with the wins over Argentina and Australia especially noteworthy.
First up on Sunday, early converted tries by Zander Reynders and Ricardo Duarttee were enough to beat the US by 14-12 in their ninth-place semi-final, although the Blitzboks had to dig deep at the end to keep the Americans out.
Duarttee did the damage, not only with his try that he converted himself, but also by forcing a breakdown penalty at the death, five metres from the South African tryline.
The US were first to score after the Blitzboks were penalised in their own half from the kick-off, but Reynders pounced a few minutes later after a good spell of attack by the South Africans, with Tristan Leyds converting from wide out.
Duarttee then scored shortly before half-time, cleverly breaking around the blind side from an attacking ruck, before adding the conversion to give the Blitzboks a 14-5 lead at the end of the first-half. US’s Lucas Lacamp scored and converted with three minutes left as the South Africans gave away a string of penalties, but the Blitzboks’ defence held firm as they ran out the clock.
Against the Aussies, Tristan Leyds scored twice inside the first five minutes, and converted both, to give the Blitzboks a handy 14-0 lead as they again showed patience on attack and kept the mistakes to a minimum.
Siviwe Soyizwapi was shown a yellow card for a high tackle, but the Blitzboks kept the Aussies at back and when “Shakes” returned from the sin bin, he was waiting on the left wing to score their third try from a brilliant turn-over on the Australian tryline.
When Selvyn Davids scored the Blitzboks’ fourth try midway through the second half, with Duarttee converting, the writing was on the wall.
Australia pulled one back with just under three minutes to go, but the Blitzboks again took control of the clash. David Brits was denied in the corner at the death before Duarttee won another ruck penalty to seal the deal.
