Cape Town - The Blitzboks suffered a 19–14 defeat to Fiji in the Cup quarter-finals of the Singapore Sevens on Sunday.
After winning 11consecutive quarter-final matches, the Springbok Sevens side will now face Argentina in the fifth-place play-off at 9:29 am (SA time).
While it looked as though the Blitzboks could produce a comeback, poor starts to each half ultimately proved fatal to their hopes of progressing to the Cup semis.
Fiji got the first try after working their way into the South Africans’ in-goal from their own 22 with a series of offloads.
All the hallmarks of a @fijirugby classic try#HSBC7s | #Singapore7s pic.twitter.com/PlhQijJc9z
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) April 10, 2022
A slipped tackle by the Blitzboks saw the Fijians run in their second, before Zain Davids got on the scoreboard for the defending World Series champions with a try one minute later.
After the break, the Blitzboks’ defence let them down again as Fiji grabbed their third try, and while skipper Siviwe Soyizwapi added one for Neil Powell’s side, it wasn’t enough as Fiji went on to claim the win.
The Blitzboks’ quarter-final fixture against Fiji was set up by their 7-12 defeat to the USA in their final Pool A game on Saturday.
👅#HSBC7s | #Singapore7s | @fijirugby pic.twitter.com/wGGUuNr6JW
— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) April 10, 2022
Prior to that, the SA side claimed a 31-5 win over Canada, before going on to beat Kenya 26-5 in their second outing of Day One.