Blitzboks suffer shock defeat at World Championship
· The South African
The Blitzboks slumped to a 31-12 defeat against Spain in their Pool A encounter on the opening day of the Sevens World Championship in Hong Kong.
The Blitzboks were out-thought, out-muscled and out-played against the Spaniards, who went on to score five tries to clinch a rare win over the series champions.
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This result not only sees Spain end a six-game losing streak against the Blitzboks, but puts the South Africans in a precarious position in the pool standings and thus in the race for a spot in the knockout stage.
MATCH RECAP: BLITZBOKS 31-12 SPAIN
The Spaniards put two converted tries on the Blitzboks for a 14-point lead in the first half. Tobias Sainz-Trapaga opened the scoring, followed by another from Eduardo Lopez. And both conversion attempts were successful.
When the Blitzboks, who had failed to get their hands on the ball up to that point, finally got some possession, they strung together a couple of phases but struggled to control the breakdown and were punished for it, handing the ball straight back to Spain.
It went from bad to worse for the South Africans after the interval. Sainz-Trapaga danced through their defence to bag his second and Spain’s third of the match to make it a 19-point game.
Shilton van Wyk did pull one try back for the Blitzboks, which Ronald Brown converted; but Spain were not to be denied. They crossed for two more tries against the out-of-sorts looking Blitzboks to all but seal the outcome.
A second Blitzboks try offered scant consolation, with the scoreboard reading far more favourably than the performance deserved.
MATCH RECAP: SOUTH AFRICA 12-7 URUGUAY
Earlier in the day, the Blitzboks opened their World Championship title defence with a narrow 12-7 win over Uruguay.
Tristan Leyds got South Africa moving five minutes in, cutting through the Uruguayan defence from 45 metres out to score. Selvyn Davids added a second try with a sharp piece of individual skill, stepping past two defenders before dotting down. Leyds converted to give the Blitzboks a 12-0 lead at the break.
However, Uruguay grew into the match in the second half and began to dominate large portions of play. The South Americans were rewarded in the final minute when Diego Ardao crossed the line, with Juan Manuel Tafernaberry adding the conversion to make it 12-7.