Leighton Koopman
The Springbok Sevens booked their tickets to the Olympic Games with some brilliant defence in their 14-5 defeat of Great Britain in the final of the Olympic Repechage tournament in Monaco yesterday.
It was definitely their toughest match of the tournament, but they thoroughly deserved the victory for the final spot at the Games next month in Paris.
Two tries on either side of the half, created by captain Selvyn Davids, were enough to seal the win as they tackled ferociously to keep Great Britain from scoring. Their opponents were able to score one, but there was never any panic from the South Africans as they trusted their system to pull them through to win the tournament.
After a disappointing Sevens Series, where they only won one tournament, the Blitzboks put that behind them to start from scratch in Monaco and perform on all three days to win. Newcomers like Tristan Leyds and Quewin Nortje stepped up, while the old heads of Davids and Impi Visser kept things calm on the field.
Earlier in the day, the South Africans had no trouble dispatching Canada in the semi-final and Uganda in the quarters.
They scored eight tries in the two matches and conceded no tries to make it through without much fuss to the final. During the group stages on Friday and Saturday, they only conceded two tries and scored 17 on the way to the play-offs.
The 26-0 and 24-0 wins over Canada and Uganda showcased the ruthlessness of South Africa on defence. It's been a while since they have tackled and defended their try line in this fashion. It's a trademark of the Springbok Sevens side from a couple of years ago, and one that has been missing for the last couple of sevens seasons.
But the hard work only started this past weekend. They can still redeem their miserable season by winning a gold medal in Paris. It will restore the pride in the Blitzbok jersey, and the win yesterday was one step closer to doing that.