A spectacular come from behind performance by the South African Blitzbokke overcame New Zealand in the Cup Final in the HSBC Sevens World Series at Prince Chichibu Staduim in Tokyo, Japan, on March 31.
South Africa’s coach, Paul Treu told reporters after the match what the win meant to his team.
“Oh it’s unbelievable!” reported irbsevens.com.
“I mean for us, we were so unlucky throughout the year. And to come back again after a disappointing tournament in Hong Kong, to bounce back and give a performance like that, it is not everyday you beat New Zealand twice in the Final,” said Treu, referring to South Africa’s first SWS Cup Final win at the USA Sevens in February.
South Africa had had a dismal Hong Kong Sevens campaign winning just one match in their pool stage and failing to progress to the finals. A return to form in Tokyo keeps them mathematically in touch with leaders New Zealand in the standings, but more importantly, bodes well for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2013 in Moscow, Russia.
“It is good momentum going into the RWC Sevens in June,” said Treu.
“Our team can go home as a happy team.”
The comeback in Japan was made after a first-half score of 12-0 in favour of New Zealand.
Gillies Kaka, Tim Mikkelson and Ben Lam for New Zealand were responsible for the points in the Kiwi’s first half.
In the second half it was South Africa’s Cornel Hendricks who went full throttle drawing two defenders and flicking a perfect pass to Seabelo Senatla—who scored behind the two uprights to start the comeback. A minute later, Cecil Afrika added a second try putting SA in the lead 14-12.
Soon after, Branco du Preez converted a penalty making it 17-12 due to silly errors made by the New Zealanders.
To ice the win, Hendrick overpowered the New Zealanders with a try that was subsequently converted to take a 12-point lead.
Not to be denied, New Zealand’s never-say-die attitude saw them score a try and convert, but South Africa held on to wrap up the score at 24-19. Making South Africa and Fiji the only two countries to have won two tournaments in this HSBC World Series.
Deserving winners, South Africa amazingly recovered their composure to present a magnificent disciplined performance in their defeat of New Zealand, who still clearly lead the overall HSBC Series standings with 132 points.
South Africa’s win returns them to second place on 100 points after Fiji had leap-frogged them the week earlier in Hong Kong.
With 22 points, the maximum available in each of the remaining two Seven’s tournaments, it remains mathematically possible for South Africa to challenge New Zealand for the series’ title. However, this would require a massive loss in form for the 10-time Sevens title holders and reigning champions, which is very unlikely.
Other results
In other results in Japan, the Plate (for fifth place) was handed to the USA Eagles whose solid performance gave them a win over Scotland 17-0.
Nick Edwards, a player for The Eagles, expressed his feelings on their Plate Final win in an exclusive interview.
“I always love playing in Tokyo,” Edwards said.
“The crowd’s really behind our team and their passion for the game makes it one of the best venues on the IRB Sevens World Series Circuit.
“We are very happy on our victory over Scotland.”
Last year’s Tokyo 7’s champion’s, Australia finished in third place by defeating a devastated France 31-7.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Asian’s Sevens Champions, and four other teams that battled it out to get through pre-qualifying during the Hong Kong Sevens, will have to play all of the three lowest ranked 15 core teams next month for entry to the 2013/14 Sevens Series.
The four teams that Hong Kong are competing with for elevation are Zimbabwe, Tonga, Russia and Georgia.
While Hong Kong’s Sevens performance continues to improve, the interest in the game locally has grown with Asia’s rugby participation understood to have increased by 19 per cent in the last four years.
Accordingly, fans are getting behind Hong Kong with only two more rounds in the SWS to play in Glasgow, Scotland, on May 4 and London, England, on May 11.
While Glasgow will decide the three nations that will be relegated from the current 15 core series’ nations, Hong Kong will be preparing for their next challenge in London where it will be decided which three nations will be elevated.
Great excitement awaits.
HSBC SWS rankings – Week 7
1. New Zealand (132) 2. South Africa (100) 3. Fiji (98) 4. Samoa (94) 5. France (77) 6. Kenya (77) 7. Wales (68) 8. Argentina (62) 9. Australia (62) 10. England (58) 11. Canada (54) 12. Scotland (46) 13. United States (46) 14. Portugal (34) 15. Spain (25) 16. Hong Kong (7) 17. Tonga (3) 18. Japan (2) 19. Uraguay (2) 20. Zimbabwe (2) 21. Russia (1).
Vincent P. Potgieter is a sports writer from South Africa based in Hong Kong.
