After winning their opening two games of the tournament, the Blitzboks lost their next three to finish fourth.
The Blitzboks concluded a disappointing Singapore Sevens by flopping to a fourth placed finish after going down 14-12 to arch rivals New Zealand in the third-fourth playoff on Sunday.
After an encouraging start to the tournament saw them win their opening two matches, the Blitzboks went on to lose their next three for a poor finish.
They do however have a chance of bouncing back well, with them heading Down Under for the Perth Sevens in Australia this coming weekend, where they will hope to produce a better showing.
Third-fourth playoff
At the start of the third-fourth playoff the Blitzboks were punished for a couple of early penalties, which allowed New Zealand territory around their 22m, with Kele Lasaqa eventually stepping through to score the opening try in the third minute.
The Blitzboks hit back nicely in the fifth minute, getting close to the New Zealand 22m, where Tristan Leyds spotted a gap, stepped through and then powered over with a player on his back, but they still trailed 7-5 after the missed conversion, which was the score at halftime.
In the second half the Blitzboks took the lead in the ninth minute, attacking from a scrum on New Zealand’s 22m, with some slick handling ending with Sebastian Jobb scoring in the corner, followed by an impressive touchline conversion from Leyds putting them 12-7 up.
The back and forth game continued with Michael Manson attacking from his own 22m, kicking the ball ahead and winning the chase to score, with the conversion giving New Zealand the lead with less than a minute left, and they ended up holding on for the win.
Good start
On Saturday the Blitzboks started the tournament well, picking up 21-14 and 33-12 pool stage wins over Spain and Great Britain respectively.
But in their final pool match against Fiji an ill-disciplined showing allowed the Fijians to keep coming back to level things up at 19-all at fulltime, before the South Pacific side clinched a 24-19 extra time win to end top of the pool.
That set the Blitzboks up against France for their semifinal on Sunday, and in the end they were no match for the French who took an early 12-0 lead in the first half, and although the South Africans got on the board in the second half, they never really threatened, going down 12-5.
