Blitzboks stunned by Spain at Hong Kong Sevens

South Africa’s Blitzboks have a fight on their hands to make it to the quarter-finals stage of the Hong Kong Sevens World Championship event after suffering a surprise defeat to Spain in their second pool match on Friday.

After opening their Pool A campaign with a hard-fought 12-7 win against Uruguay, thanks to tries by Tristan Leyds and Selvyn Davids, the Blitzboks came apart in their match against Spain, losing 31-12 in a one-sided affair. It was the first time Spain beat the Blitzboks in seven matches.

The regular season series winners, the Blitzboks, conceded two tries in the first half to the Spanish to trail 14-0 and then went 19-0 behind soon after the restart.

Shilton van Wyk then scored a try for South Africa to give them hope, but it didn’t last long as Spain scored two more tries to power into a 31-7 lead.

The South Africans’ defence was especially poor, while they also gave away a few penalties at the breakdowns.

At the death Donovan Don crossed for a second Blitzboks try.

After the first day’s action, Argentina lead the pool with two wins and six points, followed by Spain, with three points, South Africa with three points and Uruguay with one point.

If the Blitzboks are to qualify for the quarter-finals on Saturday they will have to beat Argentina at 4.39am Saturday (SA time) and hope Spain lose to Uruguay.

Only the top two in each of the three pools advance, plus the two best-placed third place finishers.

On the women’s side, South Africa, with several of their XVs players in action, lost 33-0 to Australia and 31-0 to Canada in pool play on Friday.

They face Great Britain in their final pool game at 5.04am Saturday, but are out of the running to play in any of the major knockout games.

For all the results, fixtures and pool standings click here.