daniel chigunwe
TOULOUSE. — It was a weekend of disaster for the Springbok Sevens side as they crashed out of the race for fifth place at the Toulouse Sevens yesterday and will now have to qualify via a regional tournament if they are to make the Olympic Games next year.
The Blitzboks were already up against it this weekend and needed to reach the semifinals to keep their qualification hopes alive.
But poor performances by Australia and Samoa, the two sides above them, meant that the Blitzboks were still in with a chance, provided they beat Australia yesterday and forced the final spot to go to the London Sevens next weekend.
It will now be the first time that the Blitzboks have to qualify via the Africa Cup after they have always been automatic qualifiers since Sevens was introduced at the Olympics.
The match against Australia was going well, with the Blitzboks 12-7 up at the break, but two early second half tries for Australia took the game away from them and condemned coach Sandile Ngobo’s side to the qualification route with a 21-19 loss.
Australia will now look to claim the final qualifying spot after Argentina joined New Zealand and France this weekend as qualifiers for the Olympics. Fiji were the other side that qualified this weekend.
The Blitzboks will now need to qualify in the Rugby Africa Sevens Cup in order to book their spot, a situation which is likely to be critical to Kenya, who normally dominate that tournament and now are also in danger of missing out of the Olympics.
Things went from bad to worse for Kenya as Spain confirmed their spot in the streamlined 12-team Sevens series next season and Kenya now look set to be relegated to the newly formed Challenge Series. — Supersport.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter