Cape Town — The Blitzboks crashed out at the semifinal stage of the HSBC Cape Town Sevens on Sunday after Samoa registered a nail-biting 10-7 victory in the first period of extra time.
The Blitzboks, who beat Samoa in the Dubai quarterfinal, failed to repeat the feat in Cape Town. Brian “The Chiropractor” Lima, who has been coaching the Samoans since 2020, masterminded a famous win against the home side.
Lima, who is well known to SA supporters for playing against the Springboks at the 2003 World Cup and flattening Derick Hougaard in a bone-crunching tackle, is building a solid coaching CV.
After four consecutive victories, the Blitzboks came unstuck against a dogged Samoan outfit, who had the rub of the green at the breakdown. Samoa scored first and dominated the encounter, with the Blitzboks making an uncharacteristically high number of handling errors.
The Blitzboks, however, stayed in the fight and the home crowd were on their feet when Ryan Oosthuizen scored a crucial try two minutes from time. Ricardo Duarttee made no mistake with the conversion and took the Blitzboks into extra time.
The home supporter’s hearts were ultimately broken when Samoa were awarded a contentious penalty in the first period of extra time and Faafoi Falaniko slotted the three points which sank SA and denied them the chance of back-to-back tournament wins. The defeat saw the Blitzboks extend their seven-year home drought.
SA were due to play the US next in the bronze final later on Sunday while New Zealand and Samoa were to play in the cup final after that.
Scorers:
SA 7 (0) — Try: Ryan Oosthuizen. Conversion: Ricardo Duarttee.
Samoa 10 (7) — Try: Vaovasa Afa Sua. Conversion: Paul Scanlan. Penalty: Faafoi Falaniko.
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