South Africa’s men’s sevens finished in fourth place at the HSBC SVNS Singapore on Sunday, following two close defeats – to France and New Zealand – in the National Stadium in the semi-final and third-place playoffs.
Against France, the South Africans just could not score the try they needed to draw level and they went down by 12-5, while against New Zealand, one unsuccessful conversion determined the 14-12 result.
Fiji beat France 21-12 in the final.
SOUTH AFRICA 12 NEW ZEALAND 14
South Africa suffered their third consecutive defeat, this time in the third-placed match against New Zealand, again with a successful conversion standing between the two sides.
New Zealand scored first when Kele Lasaqa stepped inside two South Africans to race away and the conversion handed them a 7-0 lead.
The South Africans kept the pressure up on attack and Tristan Leyds scored after selling a dummy to the NZ defence. The conversion went wide and at the break, two points separated the sides.
The SA men took the lead after a good try by Sebastiaan Jobb from a slick backline move. The conversion was good and their lead was 12-7, but with less than a minute to go, NZ speedster Michael Manson hacked ahead and outsprinted the cover defence to score. The conversion made it 14-12.
SOUTH AFRICA 5 FRANCE 12
France set the tone early when Pauline Riva crossed for the opening try, converting his own effort. With five minutes gone, Riva again played a decisive role, this time sending Simon Desert down the touchline to extend the lead to 12-0. Ricardo Duarttee was shown a yellow card for a breakdown infringement, further tilting the contest France’s way.
South Africa were rewarded in the second half when.Christie Grobbelaar went over after sharp work by Siviwe Soyizwapi, cutting the deficit to 12-5, but they were unable to make further breakthroughs.
SATURDAY’S POOL MATCHES
In their Pool matches on Saturday, South Africa had won two of their three games. They opened their campaign with a 21-14 victory against Spain, where they hardly got out of first gear. However, they turned on the magic against Great Britain, running in five tries for a 33-12 win.
That set them up for an exhilarating clash with Fiji, and it did not disappoint.
South Africa raced out to a 14-0 lead after tries by Tristan Leyds and Donavan Don. However, Fiji crossed for two scores within quick succession to level the scores in the second half. The momentum then swung further as first Don was sent off and David Brits followed him shortly, with South Africa in a 19-14 lead.
Fiji levelled things while South Africa were a player short, but some strong defending with six men forced the game into extra time. However, their fight was undone early on in extra time. Two players missed tackles and Nacani Boginisoko scored the try that put Fiji on top of the pool.
