Defeats against Ireland and New Zealand on Wednesday have most likely ended the Blitzboks’ medal chances at the Paris Olympics.
Their hopes now lie with other teams for favours and beating Japan by a significant margin on Thursday (4pm start) in Paris to rack up enough points to qualify for the quarter-finals as one of the best third-placed teams in the pool stages.
South Africa can only make it through on those terms after first losing to Ireland 10-5 in a tight and physical contest, and late Wednesday evening against the All Black Sevens 17-5 at the Stade de France.
Captain Selvyn Davids, as he did against Ireland, was again the lone try-scorer for the Blitzboks, with New Zealand’s points coming via tries by Moses Leo (2) and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, and a conversion from Akuila Rokolisoa.
As was the case against the Irish, the Blitzboks could not muster up anything proper on attack to threaten their Kiwi opponents.
A knock-on at the death that ended any chance of another try against New Zealand summed up their haplessness with ball-in-hand at times as the Kiwis strung together some slick attacks with solid offloads and physical play to score three spectacular tries.
South Africa’s inability to forge anything on the offence put their defence under massive pressure in both pool games – and although the tackling was not poor, it was never going to win the encounters for coach Philip Snyman’s side.
Here and there they slipped tackles, but made up for it with some good scrambling defence at times.
In both matches, Team SA were also on the receiving end of dubious referee calls that left the players baffled at times.
But unlike against the Irish, where those calls cost them points – and a yellow card after a legal tackle by Ryan Oosthuizen – they were their own worst enemy against the All Blacks with the handling errors, missed tackles and penalties.
Tight margins in Paris... Well done New Zealand pic.twitter.com/8xVA0HmAcG
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) July 24, 2024
They will have to reset after Wednesday’s play to achieve anything in Paris, with Japan waiting on them.
The Japanese were full value for their efforts against New Zealand and Ireland on the first day of play, despite 40-12 and 40-5 defeats respectively, and will come out fighting against the hurting South Africans looking for an upset.
Coach Philip Snyman said afterwards: “We’re still in it, but it’s up to us. If we play like we did today – if we don’t get ourselves ready and up for that game – then Japan is going to come out hard for us, and we are going to make it a long day for us.
“So, it’s all in our hands. If we come up tomorrow and everybody fires together, and in defence, we do exactly what we can... Then on attack, just keep our ball and put points on the board, this team can play in the quarter-finals and even go further.”