Despite injuries to several first-choice including inspirational captain Philip Snyman, the South African sevens rugby team, the Blitzboks, moved down their opposition like true champions to reach the Hamilton Sevens final.
Their Sunday assignments started off with a quarterfinal clash against Scotland and it was one-way traffic from start to finish as the Blitzboks ran out 22-0 winners after tries from Justin Gedult, Seabelo Senatla and Cecil Afrika.
Next up was semifinal opponents Australia who scored an emphatic win over the Blitzboks in last week’s Sydney final.
Any doubts of Australia repeating their heroics were dispelled in the opening minute when Afrika scored far out and four minutes later Senatla followed suit. Both tries were unconverted as the Blitzboks ran up a 10-0 lead.
The Blitzboks suffered a setback just before halftime as Senatla was yellow-carded and Australia took advantage of the situation and managed a Tim Anstee try (unconverted) moments ahead of the hooter (10-5).
As it turned out that was Australia’s final score in the match even though they started the second half with a one-man advantage.
The Blitzboks’ defence was outstanding and once they weathered the storm tries by Afrika and Kwagga Smith followed. Branco du Preez was spot on with the conversions and 10-5 became 24-5, thanks to the answered 14-point surge.
The Blitzboks will meet Fiji in the final later on Sunday.
