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Blitzbokke reach Cup final

Herman Mostert

Cape Town - The Blitzbokke have reached the final of the HSBC World Sevens Series in Edinburgh after coming from behind to beat Wales 22-19 in their semi-final.

Latest results form the IRB sevens

Wales started like a house on fire, with two early tries by Alex Cuthbert and Kristian Phillips to lead by 12-0.

However, a crucial try in the dying seconds of the first half from Bernardo Botha brought the South Africans right back into the picture.

Suddenly, after completely dominating the first half, Wales were only 12-5 up at halftime.

Botha's try just before the break clearly swung the momentum of the game, and quickly after the restart South Africa's skipper Kyle Brown scored to bring the Blitzbokke to within two points.

The Boks kept coming at the Welsh, and speedster Steven Hunt scored in the fourth minute of the second period to put the Blitzbokke into the lead for the first time.

Even though they were only 15-12 down, Wales looked a defeated team, and when Cecil Afrika's brilliant chip kick into the in-goal area was spectacularly followed up by Paul Delport to score, the game was done and dusted. Afrika kicked his first conversion of the match to take the score to 22-12 in favour of the South Africans.

Cuthbert scored his second try for Wales after the hooter, but the result was already settled.

However, the South Africans did receive a blow when they lost their skipper Brown just before the end in what looked like a serious injury.

The Blitzbokke will now face Australia - whom they beat in the pool stages on Saturday - in the Cup final later on Sunday.

Earlier, Australia defeated New Zealand 19-12 in the other semi-final.
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