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Cape Town - The Springbok Sevens will face Australia in the Cup quarter-finals of the Wellington Sevens on Sunday after they finished second in Pool A following their narrow 19-14 defeat to tournament hosts, New Zealand.
Kick-off time is 02:46 on Sunday and all the matches will again be televised live on SuperSport 1.
The Kiwis edged South Africa by the odd try after Sonny Bill Williams drew three Blitzbok defenders before offloading to Joe Webber for the winning try.
New Zealand trailed 7-5 at half-time following a converted try from Kwagga Smith and an unconverted touch down by Sam Dickson.
Akira Ioane gave the hosts the lead after half-time with another unconverted try, which was followed by a Cheslin Kolbe seven pointer. That try allowed the Springbok Sevens to regain the lead at 14-12, but they were edged right at the end when Webber went over for the winning score.
Earlier in the day Justin Geduld, Seabelo Senatla, Juan de Jongh and Rosko Specman all scored tries as the Springbok Sevens defeated Scotland 28-5 in their tournament opener.
That was followed by a 54-0 demolition of Russia. The try scorers were Senatla (2), Smith, Specman (2), De Jongh, Dylan Sage and Chris Dry.
Sage, playing in only his second tournament, scored his debut World Series try. He arrived only a day before the start of the tournament as replacement for the injured Ryno Benjamin.
Neil Powell, the Springbok Sevens coach, said that although he was disappointed with the NZ result, we was overall pleased with his team’s performances on match day one.
“The effort of the guys out there today was great. We missed one or two tackles against NZ and also did not finish them off when we had the chance to do so. However, I am very pleased with the overall effort,” explained Powell.
He cautioned that Australia will be a tough nut to crack: “They never give up and will try until the very last minute. They are very determined and have some good individual players and they are a very difficult team to play in the knockout stages,” added Powell.
The Springbok Sevens are currently in second place on the World Series league table with 35 points, the same amount as Fiji, who have a better points average after three tournaments.
The Wellington Sevens Cup quarter-final draw for Sunday:
New Zealand v Kenya
England v Argentina
Australia v South Africa
Fiji v United States
Completed Pool results from Pool play Saturday in the Wellington Sevens, the third leg of the 10-leg World Rugby Sevens Series:
Pool A
South Africa 28 Scotland 5
New Zealand 38 Russia 7
South Africa 54 Russia 0
New Zealand 27 Scotland 7
Scotland 19 Russia 17
New Zealand 19 South Africa 14
Pool B
Argentina 19 Wales 12
Fiji 45 Japan 7
Argentina 31 Japan 14
Fiji 33 Wales 7
Wales 33 Japan 28
Fiji 31 Argentina 10
Pool C
France 14 England 17
USA 24 Samoa 20
France 28 Samoa 12
England 19 USA 5
Samoa 17 England 14
USA 29 France 21
Pool D
Kenya 31 Canada 7
Australia 19 Portugal 12
Kenya 26 Portugal 5
Australia 26 Canada 22
Canada 42 Portugal 7
Australia 17 Kenya 12
