South Africa opened their 2025/26 World Rugby Sevens campaign in Dubai by finishing fifth, with New Zealand going on to take the overall men’s and women’s titles.
The Blitzboks are 11-times winners in Dubai, but fell out of the reckoning on the first day. There they played three matches in a new tournament format where only the top two teams in each pool qualified for the playoffs on day two.
The South Africans head into their home tournament in Cape Town this coming week knowing they’ll need a much-improved showing.
The South Africans beat Spain 21-12 to finish fifth. on Sunday. The Blitzboks were knocked out of the Cup race after a 19-14 defeat to Argentina in their final pool match on Saturday.
That setback and the earlier loss to Fiji saw South Africa finish last in Pool A. But it was a better Sunday for the Blitzboks as they defeated Great Britain 34-0 and then claimed fifth place from the Spaniards.
The opened opened their tournament with a gritty 15-12 win over Olympic champions France before losing 28-10 to Fiji.
Another defeat followed, Argentina and although the Blitzboks finished on the same points as Argentina, France’s 59-17 win over the Pumas and their 24-19 win over Fiji meant they and the South Sea Island team qualified and South Africa were sent to the playoffs for fifth to eighth place.
In the playoff for fifth, South Africa came from 7-0 down to run in back-to-back tries by Shilton van Wyk and David Brits. Both were converted by Ricardo Duarttee and gave South Africa a 14-7 lead at the break. But the Spaniards started the second half like they did the first, and punished some ill-discipline from the Blitzboks with Manu Moreno dancing over the line.
The impact from the bench put the result beyond doubt for the South Africans as Mfundo Ndhlovu powered his way over the line with less than three minutes to go.
Duarttee capped a perfect kicking display to take some confidence to Cape Town Stadium next weekend.
