South Africa’s ‘Blitz Bokke’ celebrate their emotional triumph at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Photo: IRB / Martin Seras Lima

by Brendan Bradford –

As South Africa celebrated the life and mourned the passing of inspirational leader Nelson Mandela, the BlitzBokke stormed to an emotion-charged victory in the third round of the IRB Sevens World Series in Port Elizabeth at the weekend.

It is the first home win for South Africa since the tournament moved to the appropriately named Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium three years ago. After losing the decider to Fiji in Dubai last weekend, the victory lifts the BlitzBokke to second place in the overall standings with 56 points, two adrift of the Kiwis and eight ahead of Fiji.

Facing a New Zealand side still smarting from a 44-0 drubbing at the hands of Fiji last weekend in Dubai, South Africa dominated the second half of the final to record a nail-biting 17-14 win which they dedicated to the memory of Madiba.

Blitz Bokke captain Frankie Horne was named
in the tournament’s Dream Team
Photo: IRB / Martin Seras Lima

“It’s a very emotional weekend for us – we lost a former president who was one of the great icons,” said Frankie Horne who was named in the tournament Dream Team.

“We have such a diverse culture and he just tried to help build the nation through sport and specifically through rugby and this is a great way to remember him by.”

Trailing 14-0 early in the match, South Africa fought back with the thunderous backing of a vocal home crowd to go into the break 14-12 behind courtesy of a Branco du Preez double.

Two time defending champions New Zealand went missing in the second half. On the wrong side of numerous refereeing decisions, the DJ Forbes-led outfit struggled to maintain possession and barely made it of its own territory before Kyle Brown scored for the home-side with four minutes to play. Cecil Afrika missed the conversion, but as penalties and mistakes multiplied for the Kiwis, an historic victory was on the cards.

“I said to the guys if we go into halftime and it’s still a close game we have a shot at winning this one and that’s exactly what happened,” said BlitzBokke coach Neil Powell.

“The guys just showed their character and pulled it through in the end and I’m very proud of each and every guy on the field tonight. Definitely it was for an icon for all South Africa and to honour him and respect him in this way is incredible.”

Australia’s Shannon Walker topped the tournament tryscoring list with 9
Photo: IRB / Martin Seras Lima

It was only fitting South Africa should take the honours and it capped off a dominant weekend for Powell’s charges. Breezing through the group stages conceding just 14 points and scoring 89, South Africa destroyed Portugal 45-0 in the quarter-final and Argentina 31-0 in the semi-final taking their total for-and-against for the weekend to 182-28 including the final.

New Zealand had a similarly easy run to the final, dealing with Portugal 43-0, the United States 43-7 and Wales 48-7 in the Pool stages. A 19-0 quarter-final win over Portugal and a 19-7 defeat of Samoa followed before facing the fitter and hungrier South Africans in the decider.

Samoa defeated Argentina 21-7 to claim third place, while Dubai winners Fiji took home the Plate with a 45-19 win over France.

Australia endured another disappointing tournament, going down to Fiji and France on Day One before beating Kenya and Wales on the way to the Bowl Final which they lost 28-19 to England.

New Zealand (58 points) maintain their spot at the top of the standings while South Africa (56) take second from Fiji (48). England (40) hold onto fourth place, Australia (34) keeps fifth while Argentina’s (33) strong showing sees them leapfrog Kenya (32) who are equal seventh with Samoa.

The Series takes a seven week break before reconvening in Las Vegas on January 24-26.

STANDINGS AFTER ROUND THREE