Blitzbok veteran places Perth in his top five wins

Blitzbok forward Ryan Oosthuizen said the team’s Sevens tournament win in Perth on the weekend was among the best in his career.

More than just for his own Player of the Final performance, but because the Blitzboks played according to their own high standards.

South Africa edged Fiji 21–19 in the final to secure an important trophy after a poor fourth-place finish in Singapore last weekend. It was their second trophy in the 2026 series after their December win in Cape Town.

Proud Blitzbok

“The Cape Town victory was the best ever for me in the 15 tournaments where I was part of the winning squad, but this effort in Perth comes very close and will rank amongst the top five,” Oosthuizen said after scoring two tries in the final.

“We came here frustrated and unhappy because of how we played in Singapore, where individual errors ruined the system structure.

“We had honest conversations and everyone realised that we were our own worst enemy in Singapore. If we fixed that, we would be very competitive and that was proved out there today in the matches against Australia and Fiji.”

The 30-year-old, who played in his 60^th world series tournament, praised his team for stepping up when it mattered most, admitting that the two defeats against Fiji – in pool play in Singapore and Perth – created frustration for him. And that he made the final personal.

“We have set out to build the best sevens team and system in the world, and I believe we are going in the right direction,” he said.

“We know what our standards should be to be able to deliver on our goals, and in those two defeats to Fiji, we did not play according to that.

“Make no mistake, the nature of this series is such that anyone can beat anyone on the day, but for us, it comes down to effort and execution. When we are on song, we can beat Fiji by 20, hence the frustration to drop two close defeats to them prior to the final.

“There were also some off the ball stuff in those two matches, so yes, we had a point to prove in the final. And we did. We put some respect back in the jersey and that is most pleasing.”

The Blitzboks enjoy a short break before their Vancouver and New York tournaments in March, which round out the 2026 series before three World Championship tournaments in Hong Kong (April), Valladolid (May) and Bordeaux (June).