The Hong Kong Sevens curse struck the Springbok Sevens side again at the worst possible moment, as they produced their worst performance of the season to be soundly beaten 31-12 by Spain in their second pool game on Saturday.
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To be honest, the scoreline flatters the Blitzboks as they were never in the game. They scored with the final play of the day through Donavan Don, but they were smashed by a Spanish performance for the ages.
Given Spain were on a six-game losing streak against the Blitzboks, it underlines how poor this performance was, and now leaves the side in a precarious spot to even qualify for the quarterfinals and save their tournament.
The Springbok Sevens now need to beat Argentina in their final game, with Los Pumas already qualifying after big wins over Spain and Uruguay, while Spain can secure their place with a win over Uruguay in their final game.
The Blitzboks may need to be lucky losers but that would pit them against one of the big guns and make their road to the final even tougher.
They have never won the Hong Kong Sevens, the only tournament they have ever not won on the circuit and it seems to be their bogey tournament.
The Blitzboks had a terrible start and made several mistakes, with Spain capitalising to go 14-0 up at the break.
Tobias Sainz-Trapaga scored first in each half and was followed by Eduardo Lopez, who scored in both halves as well. Jeremy Trevithick, Spain’s top scorer this season, finished off the win with a try late in the game.
Shilton van Wyk’s solo effort in the second half was the only score for the Blitzboks other than the late try for Don.
The Blitzboks’ moment of truth will come at 4.39am on Saturday (CAT, GMT+2) when they take on Argentina.
The Springbok Women struggled in the tournament, losing 33-0 to Australia and then 31-0 to Canada as they weren’t able to keep with the pace of the core teams on the circuit.