Blitzboks 4th on World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger log after showing 'inconsistencies'
Argentina is at the top of the log, Fiji is second, and Spain sits in third place.
Team SA won a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics after beating Australia 26-19 at a packed Stade de France on Saturday night. Picture: @Blitzboks/ X.
CapeTalk's John Maytham speaks to Keanan Hemmonsbey, a sportswriter at the Daily Maverick.
Listen below:
The Sevens Series Challenger Championship 2025 is underway.
Hemmonsbey writes in his Daily Maverick article, that despite securing three wins from the four matches they played this weekend, the Blitzboks still only managed to finish ninth in Singapore.
The Springboks Sevens side lost 38-10 against Great Britain in their first group stage game on Saturday, 5 April 2025.
It’s the second consecutive weekend that the Blitzboks have finished ninth following their failure to progress as one of the two best sides in Hong Kong last weekend.
The double blip means South Africa finished the league standings in fourth place on the log despite a convincing start in the first four series.
Consistency seems to be the issue, argues Hemmonsbey.
"The Asia League of the Seven series hasn't been good to the Blitzboks, but I think in Singapore, luck didn't go their way so because they lost this match, they were on the backfoot quite early on... they were unlucky to have a hammering in the first game which impacted the rest of their weekend."
- Keanan Hemmonsbey, Sportswriter - Daily Maverick
"I don't think the coaching or team selected is an issue but the Sevens team has done a lot better than they did last season... so they've been building and they're headed in the right direction despite not doing so well in the last two weekends."
- Keanan Hemmonsbey, Sportswriter - Daily Maverick
The top four ranked men's and women's teams at the end of the third round will qualify for the high stakes HSBC SVNS play-off in Los Angeles on 3 to 4 May with an opportunity to gain promotion to the Series.
Hemmonsbey believes the Blitzboks have a chance at winning if they fix inconsistencies shown so far.
"They will have to fix their inconsistencies and ill-discipline that has hampered them, but Argentina is the team to beat..."
- Keanan Hemmonsbey, Sportswriter - Daily Maverick
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the conversation.