Blitzboks stunned by Ireland to be knocked out of Sevens World Cup

The Blitzboks were stunned 24-14 by Ireland in their Sevens World Cup quarterfinal in front of an absolutely packed and pumping Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night.

The hosts were roared on by a capacity crowd, but put in an abject performance to be beaten by Ireland for just the second time in their history, the first having come at the Toulouse Sevens earlier this season.

It is a bitterly disappointing end to the tenure of coach Neil Powell, who was elated as he watched the Blitzboks win the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, only to then watch in horror as they threw away the World Series title and a chance at the World Cup in his final two events.

ALSO READ: Sevens returns to Cape Town in style

In the match it was a great start to the game for Ireland who managed to bounce back from two early mistakes that gave the Blitzboks early possession.

But it was from a Blitzboks penalty, with Selvyn Davids not finding touch, that allowed Ireland to work their way from their own 22m into the Boks 22m, where Mark Roche picked up the ball and ghosted over untouched, before converting his own try for a 7-0 lead.

The Blitzboks then had two guilt edged chances to score, one missed after an overthrown pass from Ronald Brown and another missed after Muller du Plessis opted to go alone instead of making the final pass.

Finally on the halftime hooter a bad Irish lineout allowed the Blitzboks to attack in their 22m, with du Plessis this time going over next to the uprights, with Brown’s conversion making it 7-all at the break.

The Blitzboks poor match continued in the second half as two lost lineouts on their own throw led to Ireland having possession in their 22m, with Harry McNulty cruising over for an unconverted score.

A knock on under no pressure outside their own 22m then allowed Jordan Conroy to pick up the ball and run in to score, with the conversion from Billy Dardis putting them 19-7 up after 11 minutes.

With time ticking away the Blitzboks needed to respond, but another mistake allowed the Irish to attack down the line, with Conroy in at the corner to seal the win with less than a minute left.

 The Blitzboks then kept the ball alive after the hooter, leading to a converted try to Mfundo Mdhlovu, however it was scant consolation for the home side, as they unceremoniously bowed out.

The Blitzboks will now face Argentina in the fifth to eighth place playoffs at 11:02am on Sunday morning.

SA women’s sevens

The South African women’s team had a mixed day of fortunes, as they started the day with another disappointing loss, before bouncing back emphatically for their first win of the tournament.

In their Challenge quarterfinal against Japan the SA women heartbreakingly went down 14-12 in a match that they probably should have won if they had taken their chances.

They went into the halftime break leading 12-7 after two tries, to Nadine Roos and Sizophila Solontsi, with one converted, but were held scoreless in the second half, while Japan managed the match winning converted try to progress.

This dropped the SA women into the Challenge 13^th to 16^th place qualifiers, where they put in their best performance of the tournament to hammer Columbia 27-0.

 It was a world class performance from Roos that saw them cruise to the win, as she ran in four of the teams five tries, two of which came in the first half as they took a 12-0 lead into the halftime break.

Two more Roos tries in the second half, as well as one from Mathrin Simmers sealed the impressive result.

The SA women will now take on China in the 13^th placed playoff in their final game of the World Cup at 2:37pm on Sunday.