The SA Sevens team went unbeaten in their home tournament.
The Blitzboks produced the perfect tournament, to go unbeaten over the Cape Town Sevens, to clinch back-to-back titles in their home event for the first time in history, edging Argentina 21-19 in an entertaining final at the Cape Town Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
It was a superb response from the Blitzboks, after they disappointed a week earlier at the Dubai Sevens, where they did not make the semifinals and eventually finished fifth, with them bouncing back in style in Cape Town.
Shilton van Wyk, who enjoyed a brilliant tournament, and was named player of the match in the final, could barely contain his excitement after the game.
“To go back-to-back is something special for us as a team. We just want to say thank you to our supporters for coming out and cheering for us,” said Van Wyk.
“As a team we said that we just wanted to take it game by game and whatever comes we face it. And luckily for us we got five out of five this weekend, so we are grateful for that.”
Blistering start
In the final, Argentina got off to a blistering start as Luciano Gonzales powered through two tackles and went over for a converted try, but the Blitzboks hit back as Donavan Don showed his incredible pace to sprint away and level the scores in the fourth minute.
Gonzales was prevalent in their second try, as he broke away, drew the last defender and put away Marcos Moneta for the score, converted by Santiago Vera Feld, to go 14-7 up, which they took into halftime after the Blitzboks knocked on when they looked like they would score.
It was a cracking start to the second half with two superb individual tries, Moneta first scoring in the corner, followed by Nabo Sokoyi racing away to dot down under the poles for a converted try to bring them back in range at 19-14.
Van Wyk then made a massive play, first stripping the ball from Argentina, and then breaking away before putting away Christie Grobbelaar for the winning try, converted by Ricardo Duartee.
Hard work
Earlier in the day, the Blitzboks were made to work hard to make the final by a game France, with them eventually securing a 22-17 win.
The Blitzboks tore into an early lead thanks to tries from Shilton van Wyk and Tristan Leyds, followed by France hitting back with a try to Jordan Sepho, before Van Wyk’s second, converted by Ricardo Duartee gave them a 17-5 lead after six minutes.
France crucially went over for a converted try to Josselin Bouhier just before halftime, followed by him dotting down his second straight after the restart to draw the scores level at 17-all, but the Blitzboks wouldn’t be denied as Ryan Oosthuizen then went over for the winning try in the 12th minute.
On day one the Blitzboks, drawn in the group of death along with New Zealand, Fiji and Great Britain, produced a superb effort to win all three games to finish top of their pool.
They beat Fiji 24-21, New Zealand 19-14 and thrashed Great Britain 41-7, to power into the competition semifinals unbeaten.
