By Gavin Rich.
Samoa pulled off their first ever win in the HSBC Cape Town Sevens as well as a rare triumph on the Sevens circuit as they edged out New Zealand 12-7 in a tightly contested wet weather final on Sunday.
It is rare indeed for it to rain in the Mother City at this time of year but after a humid day that was more redolent of Durban than Cape Town, it bucketed down just as the two finals, the women’s and the men’s, were about to kick off.
With large pools of water to navigate, it was always going to be hard for the players to play typical Sevens rugby, but they did their best.
And it was Samoa who were better at it. They scored a try in the first half and were unlucky not to add another on the stroke of halftime, and then after the All Blacks scored a breakaway try they managed to break free off a penalty with just a minute and a half to go to score the try that send them into delirium at the final whistle.
New Zealand, the reigning champions from the last time this tournament was played back in 2019, before the pandemic, had recovered from a shock loss on the opening day to Spain to get this far, while Samoa were arguably the most impressive team in the tournament, getting to the final by having to knock over the hosts in the semifinal.
The New Zealand Women avenged their defeats to the Australians in both the Rugby World Cup Sevens final here in September, as well as in Dubai last week, with a comfortable and highly impressive 31-14 win in a decider that was set up for them by 21 unanswered points in the first half.
BLITZBOKS FALTER AGAINST SAMOA AND THE USA
The Blitzboks shone on the first two days and in reality they shone from their opening defeat to Great Britain in the first game of the Dubai tournament a week earlier, but their run of success was brought to a shuddering halt on what for them was a sobering finals day of their home tournament.
They lost in agonising fashion in the semifinal, with a Samoan penalty clinching the Pacific island team’s advance to the decider, with the clinching score being a penalty kick in the first seconds of extra time.
The USA then went on to comprehensively outplay them in the third and fourth play-off game, winning 22-14.
The South Africans were never in the game after conceding two early tries, with a break-out try from their captain. Siviwe Soyiswapi, bringing the Blitzboks only briefly into it at 10-7.
But the USA scored again before halftime to take a comfortable lead into the break and comfortable it remained for them until the final whistle.
The hosts came off second in a tense and nervy semifinal, where they levelled the scores at 7-all a minute and 40 seconds from the end.
At that point it looked like the momentum was with the Blitzboks, but they’d struggled to break down the determined and physical Samoan defence, partially due to the opposition’s excellence and commitment, but also partially due to their own high error rate, not to mention indecisiveness, and they failed to nail it like maybe they should have in normal time.
At the start of extra time the Blitzboks knocked on the kick-off and then played the ball in an offside position. It was a soft penalty but it was enough to present the Samoans with a kickable penalty, much to the chagrin of a 25 000 Cape Town crowd that booed them for their decision.
But it was the right call, the game was there to be won by the Pacific islanders, and Faafoi Falaniko handled the pressure well enough to nail the kick and force a semifinal exit for a host team that perhaps succumbed a bit to nerves given their indecisiveness when they had the ball during normal time.
Ryan Oosthuizen scored the equalising try for the South Africans as they capitalised on a yellow card to that had reduced the Samoans to six men at that point. Ricky Duarttee’s conversion ensured that the Blitzboks came level in the game for the first time since Vaovasa Afa Sua crossed for the only Samoan try in the third minute.
But the moment of equilibrium was short-lived as the soft penalty that ended the local team’s challenge spoilt the party that was brewing with a potential Blitzbok/New Zealand final on the cards.
The Kiwis continued their recovery from their shock defeat to Spain in their opening game of the tournament on Friday by beating the USA 33-17 through a late flurry of scoring in a semifinal where the Americans, with the crowd behind them, came back from a 19-5 deficit to challenge strongly before losing it in the last two minutes.
The South African Women were also winless on the final day, losing 17-12 to Spain and then 15-5 to Japan to end 12th.