By Lucky Vince Pienaar
➤ The pool matches
The Blitzboks scraped into the finals by winning their pool match against France with a golden point five minutes into extra time.
They started their pool matches well by convincingly beating Australia, but when they fell apart against Kenya, it looked as if their historic six Dubai tournament victories in a row were going to end.
But then they pulled off a great come-from-behind win against France, with Christie Grobbelaar scoring in the last minute to equal the scores and Donavan Don scoring the winning try.
➤ The finals
The Blitzboks, for the first time in five years, will not win the Dubai Sevens.
The game between the Blitzboks and New Zealand hung in the balance literally until the final second, when New Zealand scored the winning try.
When the disappointment wears off, it will be good to remember that the South Africans never stopped playing and were never overawed by the men in black. In fact, the Blitzboks looked marginally the stronger team, especially on attack.
But what matters in the end? The scoreboard tells the story: the All Blacks progress to the semi-finals—the Blitzboks don’t.
South Africa (3 tries) 17-24 (4 tries) New Zealand
Blitzboks tries: Quewin Nortje (2), Donavan Don
All Blacks tries: Ngarohi McGarvey-Black (2), Sofai Maka (2)
Pictured above: Tristan Leyds on the attack
Source: Blitzboks
