By Brenden Nel.
The Blitzboks’ hopes of taking the World Series title in Los Angeles disappeared as they were soundly beaten by New Zealand in their final game, with late tries making the scoreline a more respectable 17-14 loss.
Going into the final game, and after their shock opening game loss to the USA, the Blitzboks had to beat New Zealand by 14 points to stay in the race, but had another horrific start as they conceded three first half tries to trail 17-0 before scoring twice near the end.
But it was a disappointing end to a title race where they dominated the opening tournaments of the series before their inconsistency caught up with them later on and they struggled in the last few tournaments.
It is also a stark warning to Neil Powell’s side ahead of the upcoming Sevens World Cup in Cape Town as they were nowhere near the form they showed at the Commonwealth Games, where they captured the gold medal.
Their loss meant that the USA, with a final 26-17 pool win over Canada, qualified along with the unbeaten All Black team. The highest the Blitzboks can now finish is ninth.
But the fact that Australia, who were two points behind them on the overall log, eased into the quarterfinals, killed off any chance they had of claiming the overall title.
It was clear the Blitzboks needed to get out of their pool if they were to have any chance of overall glory, a task they failed horribly at.
Without playmakers Ronald Brown and Selvyn Davids, both at home injured, the team lost Dewald Human to injury in the USA game and Zane Davids to injury in the Canada game, leaving them with too little reserves to make a big impact in the tournament.
They will now face Wales in the ninth place playoff at 6.51pm (CAT, GMT+2) but even though they can save some face if they end ninth it will be a massive disappointment given how they came into the tournament.
And a wake-up call ahead of the World Cup Sevens, where the pressure will be intense in a pure knock-out tournament to get it right in front of their home fans.
The other two teams who can also win the title kept up their run, with Argentina beating Japan in their final pool game 34-12 and now will face Samoa in their quarterfinal, while Fiji, who are the dark horses to claim the title, beat Ireland 21-7 and now will face USA in the quarterfinals.
Australia face Kenya in the first quarterfinal at 7.13pm.