The Blitzboks will have to settle with a potential seventh-place finish after suffering a hard-fought defeat to Argentina in the Sevens World Cup fifth-place semi-final in Cape Town on Sunday morning.
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South Africa came into the match on the back of a disappointing quarter-final exit to Ireland in the final game on Saturday night, but there was more disappointment to follow on Sunday.
Despite an improved attacking performance, the Blitzboks were still far too leaky on defence, with Argentina scoring four tries to claim a 26-19 victory and progress to the fifth place playoff.
The Blitzboks will have to settle with playing Samoa in the seventh-place playoff at 6.15 pm on Sunday evening.
The South Africans have never finished lower than fifth in the history of the Sevens World Cup.
“It’s definitely not the way I wanted to bow out,” said outgoing coach Neil Powell after the match.
“It was another disappointment in terms of the result of that game. I do think there was a better effort than last night, but again there were too many missed tackles. We lost that physical battle on defence.
“It’s almost like we can’t get our attack and defence both going in the same match. You can’t keep playing catch-up in sevens, there’s just not enough time to pull the game back.
“Maybe the guys got caught up in the hype of the crowd and they ended up chasing the game too much. They tried to push the intensity but they didn’t control the game.”
While South Africa were hoping for a bit of positivity after the Ireland result, it was another poor start to the match for the tournament hosts against Argentina, as the South Americans scored two tries in the opening two minutes to take a 12-0 lead.
The Blitzboks did strike back to level the scores at half-time through a wonderful from JC Pretorius from inside his own half, before Sako Makata put Angelo Davids over for the equaliser.
Argentina had the better of the second half and regained the lead through Luciano Gonzalez’s second try, before Joaquin de la Vega scored the winner in between Shaun Williams’ try for South Africa.
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
