Red-hot Blitzboks claim Vancouver title to set up series showdown with Fiji

The Blitzboks went unbeaten across the weekend to claim their second trophy in a row, following their win in Perth last month.

The victory leaves South Africa and Fiji as the only two teams still in contention for the overall title, tied on 86 log points with one tournament remaining in the regular season, to be played in New York next weekend. 

Road to the final

South Africa reached the title match by defeating Australia 19-12 in their semi-final late on Sunday evening (SA time), while surprise package Spain progressed after beating Fiji 24-17, having earlier also claimed the scalps of New Zealand and Great Britain.

In the semi-final, the Blitzboks had to come from behind before seeing off the Aussies. Ronald Brown opened the scoring but the Australians struck twice to lead 12-7 at half-time.

The Blitzboks turned the match around after the break as David Brits scored in the corner, with Tristan Leyds' conversion edging them ahead 14-12. A turnover by Visser then set up Selvyn Davids to score the decisive try as South Africa closed out the win.

One-way traffic

The final was pretty much one-way traffic, as the Blitzboks burst into a 17-0 halftime lead.

Ryan Oosthuizen opened the scoring from a quick tap penalty before turnovers created by South Africa's defence led to further tries by Sebastiaan Jobb and Shilton van Wyk. Tristan Leyds, who set up two of the scores, was named Player of the Final.

Van Wyk added another try shortly after the break before Spain responded through Jeremy Trevithick. Gino Cupido struck soon after to restore South Africa's control, and although Spain added a second late try, captain Impi Visser sealed the 38-12 win with an interception and 50m run to the line.

Snyman hails clinical display

Blitzbok coach Phillip Snyman praised his side's clinical effort in the final, noting how the players improved over the course of the competition and managed to shine despite having several new faces in the squad.

"We really improved game by game, and in the final, the guys were very clinical and delivered one of the best performances I have seen by the Springbok Sevens in a long time," Snyman said.

"Our search for consistency is very important in our vision to become the best sevens system in the world and that starts at home. We aim to bring consistency into our training sessions as well, because that will flow over to tournaments and I am happy to see that happened here in Vancouver.

"We are not perfect yet, but that is okay. I told the players they should not be scared to make mistakes, as long as it is aggressive mistakes and this weekend, I cannot fault the effort or performance the players put on the field.

"Going back-to-back this weekend, with six changes to the squad that won in Perth, shows that we are getting there. The depth in the squad is very pleasing.

"The players will enjoy this win, but the job is not done as we are tied with Fiji on 86 points and with the final tournament of the series this coming weekend in New York, we have it all to do."

Snyman said their ability on defence to create more turnovers proved vital in Vancouver and they will try even harder to get that success rate up more.

"Now it is a matter of recovery, getting back to zero again and start focusing on next weekend. It was a massive two days for us, but we will start all over again for the next one."