Back to drawing board for Blitzbokke

Hong Kong continues to be an unhappy hunting ground for the Springbok Sevens as they crashed out of the tournament with defeat to England in the Bowl semifinal.

Earlier, USA winners South Africa beat Spain 28-14 in their quarterfinal clash to set up a meeting with crowd favourites England.

For South Africa its now back to the drawing board to prepare for their next tournament in the Sevens World Series, in Tokyo next weekend.

Captain Frankie Horne said the team was very disappointed with their overall Hong Kong performance.

“Apart from Wales, we failed to impose ourselves in the pool matches and came up against a very motivated England team who had the crowd behind them. Although the results hurt, we will have to move on, learn from our mistakes and pick ourselves up to play much better next week in Japan,” said Horne.

Against England, South Africa raced to a 14-0 lead in the first half after tries by Justin Geduld and Branco du Preez.

Marcus Watson scored a crucial try for England on the stroke of half-time, and during the second half it was England who set the pace, controlled the breakdown and eventually converting their chances.

Mike Ellery and Rob Vickerman each scored a try that allowed the English to pull away from the Springbok Sevens.

Watson, a constant danger on the wing with his burst of speed, scored his second try just before the end to seal their victory and passage to the Bowl final against Hong Kong.

Cornal Hendricks, subdued for most part of the tournament, scored a hat-trick of tries against Spain to boost his season tally to 28 in six tournaments. Philip Snyman was the other South African try scorer, while Justin Geduld added three conversions.

Kenya failed in their bid to play in the Cup final after Wales beat them 19-0 in one the two semifinals. Down 0-14 at one stage, Fiji staged a thrilling comeback to stun New Zealand 33-14 to book their Cup final place.