The Blitzboks missed out on an opportunity to face rivals New Zealand for ninth place after suffering a narrow loss to Scotland in the semi-final in France on Sunday.

The 24-19 loss saw the Blitzboks get just five log points from the Toulouse Sevens, having failed to progress from their pool on Saturday.

Thankfully for the Springbok Sevens team, second-placed Australia and third-placed Argentina both faltered in the cup quarter-finals and can only finish as high as fifth at the tournament. However, Fiji, France and Ireland all have the opportunity to cut the gap on the Blitzboks by winning the France Sevens cup.

Despite Ronald Brown’s try giving the Blitzboks a bright start to the ninth-place semi-final, a clinical performance from Scotland saw them take a 12-7 lead into the break and extend that to 24-7 through back-to-back early in the second half.

To make matters worse for the Blitzboks, who were already without JC Pretorius due to injury, Tiaan Pretorius had to be stretchered off the field halfway into the first half.

Muller du Plessis’ solo effort narrowed the deficit to 10 points and gave the South Africans hope of a comeback, but Scotland were able to run down the clock and Impi Visser’s try after the fulltime hooter would be a consolation.