Despite a disappointing end to their season, it was a brilliant campaign overall with the Blitzboks winning the World Sevens Series and World Championship titles.
Blitzboks flyer Donavan Don is hunted down by French defenders during their France Sevens semifinal against the hosts in Bordeaux on Sunday. Picture: David van der Sandt/Gallo Images
The Blitzboks secured the Sevens World Championship title on Saturday, but were unable to celebrate in style as they finished fourth at the France Sevens in Bordeaux on Sunday afternoon.
It was a difficult final tournament of the season for the Blitzboks, as they won only two games while losing four, which was a disappointing way to close out what had been an incredible season overall.
They clinched the Sevens World Series title back in March, after winning events in Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver and New York, while they finished fourth in Singapore, and their worst finish of their entire campaign was fifth place in Dubai.
Sevens Championship
Going into the Sevens Championship the Blitzboks were top seeds and backed that up by triumphing after a strong first two events.
Kicking things off in in April the Blitzboks made history by winning their first ever title in Hong Kong, which gave them the perfect start.
Last weekend in Valladolid, Spain, it was almost two from two for the South Africans, as they reached a second straight final, but they were upset by Australia, having to settle for a runner-up finish.
Thus heading into the final event of the season in Bordeaux they knew they only needed to reach the semifinals to secure the title, and that they did after an up-and-down first two days.
On day one they were upset 19-14 by Great Britain in their opening match, before bouncing back with a 26-5 win over Kenya.
On day two they slipped to a tight 15-12 final pool loss against Fiji, but thanks to a couple of losing bonus points they snuck into the quarter-finals as one of the two best third-placed teams.
That set them up with another clash against Fiji on Saturday afternoon, and it proved to again be a tight contest, with the Blitzboks this time emerging victorious 14-12 to secure the World Championship title.
Final day
On Sunday’s final day the Blitzboks were outplayed in their semifinal by fired up tournament hosts France 21-12, to end their hopes of a perfect finish to their season.
That sent them into the third-fourth playoff against Spain, but they produced their worst performance of the tournament, and possibly season, by crashing to a bitterly disappointing 40-14 loss.
The Blitzboks started the match like a house on fire, as Shilton van Wyk ran in a first minute try, followed by Ricardo Duarttee dotting down, both converted, to give them a 14-0 lead in the fourth minute.
But Spain struck back to level the scores going into halftime, Juan Ramos scoring a double either side of a yellow card to Zain Davids for a deliberate knock-on.
The second half was then all Spain as Francisco Cosculluela, Josep Selles and Pol Pla all ran in tries, while Duarttee also got a yellow, as the Bltzboks finished poorly.
“It’s been an incredible season. We pitched up and we looked for consistency in each tournament,” said Siviwe Soyizwapi after the match.
“But I must say we are very disappointed by this tournament in Bordeaux, and this last game. It wasn’t a matter of we had already won the championship, and I just think we have to put this (poor tournament) behind us very quickly and get back to what is expected of us.
“But overall things have gone great. We have been blooding youngsters, who have in turn been pushing the older guys, who have been sharing their experience. So it has been a good balance and we have been building depth as well.”
