It was heartbreak for the Blitzboks as Samoa slotted a drop kick penalty in extra time to seal a 10-7 semifinal win in the Cape Town Sevens on Sunday afternoon.
Both teams were locked at 7-all at the end of full time, after a converted try in each half from either side, before a breakdown penalty off the kick-off allowed Faafoi Falaniko to send the Samoans wild with a tricky penalty into the wind.
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At the start of the match some big early pressure from Samoa in the Blitzboks 22m ended with Ricky Duartee cynically stopping them from playing quickly after a penalty, with the ref handing him a yellow card for his efforts.
With the extra man Samoa sent the ball one way and then back the other, earning space for Vaovasa Afa Su’a to dive over, while Paul Scanlan added the extras for a 7-0 lead after three minutes.
The Blitzboks tried to fight back over the rest of the half, but superb work from Samoa at the breakdown meant the hosts couldn’t get close.
Impressive defence
The impressive Samoan defence continued in the second half, but a raft of penalties then saw Afa Su’a yellow carded.
The Blitzboks now had the extra man and used it to get into the Samoan 22m, where a penalty on the 5m was quick tapped by Ryan Oosthuizen and he powered his way through two tackle attempts to score, while Duartee levelled the scores with the conversion.
The game then went to extra time and Samoa made sure they would meet New Zealand in the final after they beat USA 26-17 in their semifinal.
The Blitzboks will hope to give the home crowd something to cheer for when they battle it out against USA in the third placed play-off at 6:59pm.
The South African women sevens team ended a disappointing Cape Town Sevens tournament with a 15-5 defeat to Japan on Sunday.
After heavy defeats against Australia and Ireland on Friday, they then went down to Spain 17-14 on Saturday, before losing to Spain again on Sunday 17-12, and then finishing the tournament without a win after Japan fought back from a 5-0 deficit at halftime.
