Blitzboks into Vancouver semis
The Springbok Sevens team gained some sweet revenge for their defeat in Perth as they beat Australia 17-14 to move into the semifinals of the HSBC World SVNS Series event in Vancouver in the early hours of Sunday morning (SA Time).
The Semi Finals are set 🙌
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) February 23, 2025
South Africa will take on Fiji!#HSBCSVNS | #HSBCSVNSVAN pic.twitter.com/0uQggMY9h0
The Blitzboks had lost in the semifinals in Perth to the Wallaby Sevens side in dubious fashion, as some very strange calls went against them, including a try from a knock-on, and were disappointed to lose in that fashion.
Add to that their loss in their final pool game late on Saturday night set the two sides up for a rematch in the quarterfinals a few hours later.
The Blitzboks were up for the game, which was certainly a game of two halves, as they started off very impressively with Ryan Oosthuizen returning from injury to play a key role.
Their first try came from a quick tap penalty from Selvyn Davids, who stretched the defence as he darted 10 metres, before spreading the ball wide to Shilton van Wyk, who put a flying Ronald Brown through the defence to score.
South Africa, more like smooth operators! 😎#HSBCSVNS | #HSBCSVNSVAN pic.twitter.com/tmyIEzEJyC
— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) February 23, 2025
Oosthuizen added the second after Sebastian Jobb and then Brown made inroads, with the final pop pass sitting perfectly for him to score.
A stunner of a switch pass off the back of the scrum between Davids and Van Wyk saw the winger ghost through so much space and run 60 metres for the third try, putting the Blitzboks up 17-0 in the process.
Australia finally broke through with three minutes to go when Ben Dowling managed to evade a tackle and stumbled through to score, giving them some hope, and it was even more hope when Josh Turner made it a three-point game with 30 seconds to spare.
But despite the flutters, the Blitzboks closed out the game for a solid win, and now move into the semifinals where they will face Fiji at 10.52pm tonight.
The other semifinal will be between defending World SVNS champs Argentina and series upstarts Spain. Argentina won a close battle against France 12-7 while Spain shocked the New Zealand sevens side with the same scoreline. Fiji easily beat Great Britain 24-0 in their quarterfinal.
Quarterfinal results
New Zealand 7 Spain 12
Argentina 12 France 7
Fiji 24 Great Britain 0
South Africa 17 Australia 14
Semifinals (all times CAT, GMT+2)
10.30pm Spain v Argentina
10.52pm Fiji v South Africa
Final scheduled for 3.05am on Monday morning. All games live on SuperSport.
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