Blitzboks bounce back to secure Olympic quarter-final spot
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South Africa will face New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris at 21h00 on Thursday night after they smashed Japan 49-5 at Stade de France in their final pool game earlier in the day.
The Springbok Sevens team had a 35-0 lead at the break in their final Pool A match, scoring five tries in the first half and adding two more after the break.
The Blitzboks, who had to replace the injured Quewin Nortje with Ronald Brown on the second day, knew they had to win by at least 21 points to make into the final eight and did just that. They were ruthless in the opening half and scored almost at will, dominating the restarts, possession and territory.
Japan launched a mini-comeback early in the second half, scoring their only try of the match, but that did not stop the Blitzboks from scoring two more tries.
Rosko Specman, who scored one of the tries, said afterwards that they did what was needed and are still in the hunt for a podium finish.
"Coach Philip (Snyman) asked us one thing in the change room and that was to get the joy back of playing for this team, the same joy we displayed in Monaco," said Specman. "We had some ball to play with and it was joy all over. We are still in the tournament and that is a huge boost of confidence."
Scorers:
South Africa 47 (35) - Tries: Zain Davids, Impi Visser, Ryan Oosthuizen (2), Rosko Specman, Shilton van Wyk (2). Conversions: Ronald Brown (2), Tristan Leyds (5).
Japan 5 (0) - Try: Kazuma Ueda.
Quarter-finals
21h00: South Africa v New Zealand
21h30: Argentina v France
22h00: Fiji v Ireland
22h30: Australia v United States