South Africa sparkle in Edmonton sunshine to win HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series

Leading try scorers, leading points scorers and winners of every single game across both weekends, South Africa finished the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2021 as deserved champions.

The Blitzboks backed up their win in Vancouver last week to take the second tournament of the shortened Series in Edmonton, securing a second gold medal with a 24-12 victory over Great Britain in the final.

South Africa’s fourth Series title had already been wrapped up before then, thanks to a 33-7 defeat of Vancouver finalists Kenya in the Cup semi-final. Kenya bounced back to win the bronze medal after hosts Canada put up a real fight, while the result of the day went to Germany who claimed fifth place after an extra-time win over USA.

Absent Olympic champions Fiji and other Series powerhouses New Zealand and Australia will have taken note of the Blitzboks’ performance ahead of the start of the 2022 Series and no doubt been impressed by the way Neil Powell’s new-look squad came together so quickly.

In a demonstration of their strength in depth, Series debutants like Ronald Brown took to the big stage straight away and they will go into the opening tournament of the 2022 Series in Dubai riding the crest of a wave.

“It has been an awesome two weeks, we came here with a mission to stick together and focus on our system and build on that so I am very proud of the team,” said Muller du Plessis, South Africa’s star performer in Edmonton with 11 tries – the most by a Blitzboks player since Seabelo Senatla crossed that many times in Dubai in 2016.

Du Plessis struck twice in the first half of the final to help the Blitzboks overcome an uncharacteristically sloppy start which saw them reduced to six men following Selvyn Davids’ sin-binning.

Great Britain wasted no time in capitalising on their one-man advantage to score through Robbie Fergusson but the setback only seemed to galvanise the Blitzboks who responded through Muller, after a good break Christie Grobbelaar, moments before they were restored to their full complement of players.

Captain Siviwe Soyizwapi then latched onto a well-weighted kick through from Brown to score the first of his two tries. But du Plessis beat Soyizwapi to the double with an arcing run to the line as South Africa went into half-time holding a 17-7 advantage.

Soyizwapi joined du Plessis in reaching double figures for the tournament with his second as South Africa pulled further clear and effectively ended Great Britain’s hopes of becoming the first British side to win a Series tournament since Scotland triumphed in London in 2017.

No-one told Tom Bowen that the game was dead though, and the winger raced in for his 99th Series try and almost brought up his century, only to be dragged into touch by du Plessis two metres out.

That was the last real threat to the Blitzboks’ line, which was only breached four times in the entire tournament, and that defensive prowess aligned to their attacking ability make them a force to be reckoned with no matter the opposition.

“We normally have one game in the tournament where we make too many mistakes and probably this last one was this game for us but, again, with the new guys we have in the team, I am very happy with the performance over the two weeks,” said Blitzboks head coach Neil Powell.

WORLD RUGBY