By Brenden Nel.
The wait for the Blitzboks to break what was already an eight season drought in their home tournament will be extended for at least another year as they bowed out at the quarterfinal stage of the Cape Town Sevens on a sweltering Sunday morning.
When the hosts were narrowly beaten by Ireland in the final Pool game on Saturday evening there were probably many who felt that in so doing they had dodged a bullet, as the winner was slated to play New Zealand while the loser played against Australia. Well, as it turned out, it was the Blitzboks who drew the short-straw, with the All Blacks proving no match for Ireland, going down 36-21, in their quarterfinal and they’d probably have been vulnerable to the South Africans.
The Australians were anything but vulnerable though as they put the Blitzboks under pressure from the opening minute of the game and retained it there for the entire clash as they ran out comprehensive 28-0 victors. The Blitzboks actually did quite well in keeping Aussies scoreless for most of the first half as they lost a man to a yellow card after a tap down in a tackle.
But their competitiveness ended with a poor mistake just after the Australians had finally made the pressure tell by simply stretching the South Africans to the point where they just ran out of defenders and the Aussies were able to dot down between the posts. At 7-0 and halftime beckoning the Blitzboks were still well in the game and would have felt they’d done well to resist when they had such minute strands of possession, but when they were awarded a penalty off what was to be the last move of the half the kick was misdirected and Australia cantered through lax defence down the left Blitzbok flank to make it 14-0 at the break as they slotted the angled conversion.
Any thought of a fightback was destroyed straight after halftime as the Blitzboks created a great chance of scoring as they threatened a breakout from their own half but when the move broke down the Aussies were able to transition all too easily and at 21-0 the South African interest in the main title was properly done and dusted.
In the first quarterfinal on what is shaping as a boisterous Sunday in Cape Town Argentina were too good for Canada, winning 33-0, while the most exciting quarterfinal of the morning saw Sevens giants Fiji fight back from a 24-17 deficit in the final minute to force a draw and extra time.
France battled gamely in the first period of extra time but two yellow cards cost them dearly as Fiji went over for the winning try.
Argentina will play Ireland in the first men’s semifinal at 2.56pm while Fiji and Australia will clash at 3.18pm.
There are two good games scheduled in the women’s semifinals, with Australia playing the USA at 2.12pm and France and New Zealand clashing at 2.34pm.