All Blacks Sevens land knockout blow to Blitzboks’ title hopes in Hong Kong

Saturday’s heavyweight bout between South Africa’s Blitzboks and the All Blacks Sevens from New Zealand was always going to be one of rugby’s main event sevens fights on day two at the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.

The four lines around the field at the all-new 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium served as the ring ropes while two squads of rugby sevens fighters braced for what HSBC SVNS Series veteran Regan Ware described on Friday as “a war every time” in anticipation of this clash.

But, unfortunately for the Blitzboks, the All Blacks Sevens “punched first” before running away with a unanimous win on the judges’ metaphorical scorecards. The New Zealanders secured a 17-7 triumph, with that result knocking South Africa out of the title race.

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Two-time Hong Kong Sevens champion Cody Vai landed the first telling blow with a try in the fourth minute, and Dylan Collier made some more damage with a point-scoring counter to South Africa’s scrambling defensive line soon after.

New Zealand led 12-nil at the break and took another big step towards victory when Amanaki Nicole scored the team’s third during the second term. South Africa hit back through replacement Donovan Don in the 15^th minute but that’s all they offered in return.

“We know they’re a physical team,” Davids told RugbyPass.

“They actually punched first in this game I think.

“It’s always a battle between the two of us but I know the team that hits first will obviously get the victory.

“I think our guys weren’t too clinical today.”

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That was South Africa’s second loss in as many games after falling 26-7 to Australia in another one-sided Pool B clash. While their campaign started with a scintillating 40-7 demolition of relegation-threatened Uruguay, they haven’t done enough to qualify for the quarters.

South Africa finished third in Pool B on three competition points, but Ireland in Pool A (4) and France (5) in Pool C will go through as the top two third-placed teams from that stage of the prestigious tournament.

“Those teams like that, New Zealand and Australia, you’ve got to keep your ball, you can’t defend all day or you’re going to get tired and that wall’s going to break,” Davids reflected.

“We never had the ball for longer than two, three phases and it was a turnover… rugby is all about the ball, having the ball.”

Before the last two regular season events of the 2024/25 campaign, the Blitzboks still have every chance of taking out the league title. They sat equal-third along with Fiji on 62 league points, while Spain in second and first-placed Argentina were slightly ahead.

But, even with these tough results in Hong Kong China, the Boks still have everything to play for this season with the World Championship in Los Angeles only a matter of weeks away. The winner-takes-all event will be held at Dignity Health Sports Park on May 3-4.

“In sevens we have to be clinical and make sure we find out as quick as possible what our mistakes were and rectify them as soon as possible,” he added.

“Otherwise we’re going to bite ourselves in the butt.”

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