South Africa clinch third spot at Gold Coast Sevens
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Boom Prinsloo. Photo by Mark Nolan/ Getty Images
The Springbok Sevens won the first ever play-off for third place in the HSBC Sevens World Series after they beat hosts Australia 17-7 at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast earlier today.
Chris Dry, Paul Delport and Boom Prinsloo scored a try each for South Africa, who had Bernado Botha yellow carded for a high tackle. Pama Fou scored a consolation try for the hosts.
The Blitzbokke beat France 14-5 in their first match of the day in the Cup quarter-finals thanks to tries from Dry and Robert Ebersohn. They were however outplayed by a dominant Fiji, who won the semi-final clash 24-7. Dry scored the only try for SA.
Fiji captured the first title of the season beating New Zealand 26-12 in the Cup Final.
South Africa lost playmaker Cecil Afrika on the first day after the IRB Sevens Player of the Year sustained a rib injury during the pool stage on Friday. South Africa Sevens coach, Paul Treu, confirmed that Afrika will remain with the team and will travel with the squad on Sunday to Dubai.
“We are disappointed that we could not protect our ball much better against Fiji, who was clearly the best side on day two. However, there were many positives over the two days for us. Robert did well in his first outing for us in two years, Chase Minnaar played for the first time in a year while Renfred Dazel is fully fit and played with no ill effects from his knee injury which has kept him out since the Las Vegas tournament last season.
“We already started much better than last season, when we somehow could not get going from the beginning – I think that is the most pleasing aspect of the weekend for us. We now have 17 points and for us that is a reasonably good start. It is a long way to go, there are eight more tournaments remaining and now we need to regroup and prepare for Dubai,” said Treu.
South Africa’s results on day two at Skilled Park, Gold Coast
Quarter-finals
SA 14, France 5
Semi-finals
Fiji 24, SA 7
Third place play-off
SA 17, Australia 5
Cup Final
Fiji 26, New Zealand 12
Plate Final
Wales 26, Samoa 15
Bowl Final
Argentina 17, Scotland 14
Shield Final
Papua New Guinea 31, Japan 19
The HSBC World Series log after round one in Australia
- Fiji 22 points
- New Zealand 19
- South Africa 17
- Australia 15
- Wales 13
- Samoa 12
- England 10
- France 10
- Argentina 8
Next Friday in Dubai, South Africa will play in Pool B against New Zealand, the USA and Portugal.
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