By Lucky Vince Pienaar
- Blitzboks came from Cape Town with a real chance of winning in Perth.
- Instead, they dropped the ball and dropped their important matches to finish fourth.
➤ The Blitzboks came into the Perth HSBC Sevens Tournament as the Cape Town champions. In their first two matches, they didn’t score big victories, but they seemed dominant and confident.
In their third match they lost to Argentina but they had already done enough to get into the finals. All seemed to be going according to plan.
➤ The Wallabies started strongly in the quarter final against the Blitzboks, James Turner finally breaking through the strong South African defence. (Aus 7-0 Blitz 2 min) The Blitzboks, however, responded beautifully with a dominant try under the poles. (Aus 7-7 Blitz 3 min)
Once again the Blitzboks defence was tested time after time. It held until one minute from the break when Ronald Brown, the man they call the doctor, broke away and came within inches of scoring but he was dragged across the sideline.
The Blitzboks took the lead in the second minute of the second half when speedster Selvyn Davids outran the Aussies to score his second. (Aus 7-12 Blitz 9 min)
The Blitzboks seemed to go into defensive mode. Always a dangerous tactic, and it cost them eventually when Aus scored their second through Sidney Harvey, missing maybe the most important conversion in the tournament so far, leaving the scores tied. (Aus 12-12 Blitz 13 min)
With the scores tied and time up on the clock Maurice Longbottom rolled the dice, going for a penalty kick. But he missed!
Extra time started with the Wallabies attacking strongly but again the defence held. A yellow card for Ryan Oosthuizen leaves the Blitzboks with six players on the field and scratching in defence but the line broke.
Australia are through to the gold medal match as Aden Ekanyake scored the golden try. South Africa will play Spain for the bronze. (Aus 17-12 Blitz 16 min)
➤ For the first three minutes of the bronze medal final the Blitzboks don’t see the ball but they do a lot of damage with their fierce tackles. When they eventually get the ball they seem to play positive rugby.
Except the Blitzboks are very, very lucky to dodge a bullet when Spain kick ahead and knock on literally within inches from the tryline.
Then farce ensues! Shilton van Wyk is sent off for consistent infringements, then Ronald Brown kicks the ball away and he gets yellow. The Blitzboks are down to five players. Don’t these guys want to win the match?
Eduardo Lopez goes in under the post just before halftime. (Blitz 0-7 Spain 6 min)
South Africa seem a bit more in control in the second half even if it takes until the 4th minute of the second half for Selvyn Davids to step through the Spanish line and score under the posts. (Blitz 7-7 Spain 11 min)
But once again the Blitzboks go into zombie-mode and it’s no surprise when Jaime Manteca scores under the posts. (Blitz 7-14 Spain 13 min)
After fulltime the Blitzboks have possession and Quewin Nortje kicks away possession in time for Spain to kick the ball out of play.
A performance so bad that it cannot be explained. Something needs to be done.
Pictured above: Selvyn Davids scored two tries but it was not enough to get the Blitzboks into the final in Perth.
Source: SA Rugby
