South Africa’s men’s Sevens placed ninth at the HSBC SVNS Singapore after two wins on Sunday, first by two points against the USA before finishing the tournament in style against Australia.
Ultimately South Africa won three of their four games in a truncated tournament, the penultimate on the 2024/25 calendar, included a beating world series leaders Argentina on Saturday, but unfortunately a big defeat in their pool opener against Great Britain, where they lost Sebastiaan Jobb to an early red card, meant the South Africans were condemned to the minor placings.
They showed a lot of character in their remaining matches to finish the tournament with their heads held high though, with the wins over Argentina and Australia especially impressive.
First up on Sunday morning, first-half converted tries by Zander Reynders and Ricardo Duarttee were enough to stop the USA by 14-12 in their ninth-place semi-final, although South AFrica had to dig deep at the end to keep the Americans out.
Duarttee did the damage, not only with his try that he converted himself, but also by forcing a breakdown penalty at the death, a mere five metres from the South African tryline.
Against the Aussies, Tristan Leyds scored twice inside the first five minutes, and converted both, to give South Africa a 14-0 lead as they again showed great patience on attack and kept the mistakes to a minimum.
Siviwe Soyizwapi was then shown a yellow card for a high tackle, but the South Africans kept the Aussies at bay and when “Shakes” returned from the sin bin, he was waiting on the left wing to score their third try from a brilliant turn-over on the Australian tryline.
When Selvyn Davids waltzed through for the’ fourth try midway through the second half, with Duarttee converting, the writing was on the wall.
Photo: DAVID VAN DER SANDT
