Lucky Sithole
South Africa 17 (5) – USA 12 (5)
How the Blitzbokke manage to compete – and compete well – is one of those joyous mysteries of sevens. The South African side almost always faces bigger and faster opponents and the match against the USA is the most extreme example of that.
America’s Carlin Isles and Perry Baker are recognised as the fastest in sevens and man for man the USA players seem like giants compared to the South Africans.
As the players come onto the field, you can’t help but wonder how our boys can even compete against these giants. But they do.
While Mzansi looked good in the first passage of play, moving the ball around with great handling, accuracy and speed, giant Joe Schroeder gets the ball close to the try line and scored with a long out-stretched arm.
South Africa scores in the corner through Selvyn Davids and at halftime the scores are level.
The slight drizzle that starts during the break probably suits the South Africans, and, working with the scraps, profiting from the mistakes of the big Americans, our boys manage to score two more tries.
USA responded with one try but the final whistle saw the Blitzbokke winning their pool with three matches played and three won.
Going into the finals, the table is clearly laid for the two main teams in this great drama – both South Africa and Fiji are unbeaten.
Olympic gold is beckoning.
Image source: @SuperSportTV
