CAPE TOWN – The Springbok Sevens team fell at the final hurdle of the HSBC Cape Town Sevens on Sunday when they were beaten 7-5 by New Zealand in a very tense and tough final in front of 55,804 fans at Cape Town Stadium.
The Kiwis were ecstatic when the final whistle blew after they lost the final to South Africa by 15-0 last weekend in Dubai.
With the top teams more physical than ever this weekend, it was no different in the final as the 14 players on the field smashed each other from start to finish.
The first half was a massive tussle typified by big hits from both teams as neither side gave an inch on defence. New Zealand probably had more possession and territorial advantage, but they failed to capitalize mainly due to significant intensity by the Blitzboks in defence, which forced a number of handling errors.
The Blitzboks, on the other hand, used their first opportunity in attack in the second half when New Zealand failed to control a chip through by Justin Geduld, chased hard by Seabelo Senatla.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/BestofUs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BestofUs @CapeTown7s @WorldRugby7s pic.twitter.com/Zf5XWupVrX
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks)
The ball was knocked on and played from an offside position, but the Blitzboks played the advantage perfectly as Geduld followed up to score the first try of the match.
Shortly afterwards tempers flared with some off the ball stuff and the referee had to tell both teams to calm down as the tension rose on the field.
Ngarohi McGarvey-Black went over for the Kiwis’ first try, exploiting a few mistakes on defence by the Blitzboks, and the conversion put the New Zealanders ahead by 7-5 with less than two minutes to go.
The Blitzboks had one final chance to score, but they lost a lineout in the Kiwi half and from thereon, the New Zealanders didn’t make a mistake to seal the win and their second tournament victory in Cape Town.
Earlier on Sunday, the Black Ferns won the women’s tournament when they beat Australia by 17-7 in the final, to make it a double for New Zealand.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/AllBlacks7s?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AllBlacks7sand the @BlackFerns🇳🇿 and thanks to the nearly 120,000 fans who made the weekend one to remember, yet again!
🔗 https://t.co/U23NdKsyLW #AnythingCanHappen pic.twitter.com/U7rMNrQngI
— HSBC Cape Town 7s (@CapeTown7s)
Scorers
South Africa 5 (0) – Try: Justin Geduld.
New Zealand 7 (0) – Try: Ngarohi McGarvey-Black. Conversion: Akuila Rokolisoa.