Blitzboks Sevens

The Blitzboks won their sixth consecutive HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament when they beat Australia in the final in Seville. Photo: SA Rugby website

CHAMPIONS! Blitzboks reign supreme in Seville

The Blitzboks won their sixth consecutive HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament when they beat Australia in the final in Seville.

Blitzboks Sevens

The Blitzboks won their sixth consecutive HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament when they beat Australia in the final in Seville. Photo: SA Rugby website

The Springbok Sevens team won their sixth consecutive HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournament – their 34th successive match and fourth in the 2022 season – when they beat Australia by 33-7 in the final of the Seville tournament on Sunday evening.

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Australia drew first blood when Ben Dowling scored late in the first half – shortly after Justin Geduld left the field on a stretcher with what looked like a serious injury – and with time running out, the Blitzboks kept up the pressure.

This led to a great try by Christie Grobbelaar after the hooter had sounded, after Selvyn Davids kicked ahead and the big forward showed his soccer skills to get the ball into the in-goal area where he dotted down.

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Both tries were converted for a 7-7 score at the break, but less than a minute into the second half, Grobbelaar got his second try wide on the right after a quick-tap penalty. Selvyn Davids added a second conversion to put South Africa in the lead by 14-7 with five minutes to go.

Darren Adonis was sin-binned moments later, but the Aussies made a hash of the penalty which allowed Ryan Oosthuizen to grab a loose ball and score the Blitzboks’ third try.

Davids converted to stretch the Blitzboks’ lead to 21-7 and to compound matters for Australia, Josh Turner was also yellow carded for foul player after the try was scored, with South Africa given a penalty on half-way instead of the restart.

A second yellow card followed for Australia as Maurice Longbottom was sent off with the men in green and gold on the attack, but they kept on hammering away. The Blitzboks’ defence was simply too good and from a turn-over, they sent it wide to where Adonis was waiting to score South Africa’s fourth try.

Impi Visser rubbed salt into the Aussie wounds with a fifth try as the buzzer sounded to end two magical weeks in Spain for the Blitzboks.

Blitzboks beat Ireland in the semi-finals

In their first game on Sunday, the Springbok Sevens side booked their place in the final of the HSBC Spain Sevens in Seville after a solid performance in their semi-final against Ireland, where they scored four tries to nil against to win 26-0.

Australia beat Argentina by 28-12 in the other semi-final.

The match against the Irish started in familiar fashion for the Blitzboks, as they were yet again slow out of the blocks and had to defend for long periods. They did so with aplomb and showed great discipline in that area of play.

Once they had the ball though, their attack was swift and precise.

The Blitzboks’ first try came from a turn-over penalty won by Justin Geduld before Christie Grobbelaar was put in possession all of 70m out. There was no stopping the prop as he showed his great pace to score.

That knocked the stuffing out of the Irish, and Shaun Williams was over the line in no time, finishing a sublime try from first phase where Selvyn Davids and Geduld probed before Williams swerved inside his man to score. Davids kicked the conversion and at halftime the score was 14-0.

The second half saw more of the same. First Geduld ran a beautiful line from a lineout to score and after Davids was impeded and the Irish player sin-binned for the act, the playmaker kicked ahead and scored under the sticks for the final try of the match.

SCORERS:

SEMI-FINAL: SOUTH AFRICA 26 (14) IRELAND 0

South Africa

Tries: Christie Grobbelaar, Shaun Williams, Justin Geduld, Selvyn Davids

Conversions: Davids (2), Williams

Ireland 

Nil

FINAL: SOUTH AFRICA 33 (7) AUSTRALIA 7 (7)

South Africa

Tries: Christie Grobbelaar (2), Ryan Oosthuizen, Darren Adonis, Impi Visser

Conversions: Selvyn Davids (4)

Australia

Try: Ben Dowling

Conversion: Dietrich Roache