The Blitzboks were knocked in the semi-finals of the Cup competition with a 12-7 loss to hosts Australia.

This set up a 3rd and 4th place play-off against Fiji who beat South Africa 26-12 to share the top of the standings with the Blitzboks.

New Zealand beat Australia 27-24 in the final to win back-to-back tournaments after beating South Africa in the Wellington Sevens final last week and this sees them sharing the lead as well in a three horse race.

Coach Neil Powell says it’s going to be interesting going into the Las Vegas and Vancouver Sevens in three weeks’ time.

Powell was forced to call on several of the more inexperienced players for the knockout match and he says this is where things went wrong for them. "We must learn that these kind of basic errors will always hurt you in knockout matches.

“We were down to ten men with Philip out injured and Kwagga suspended. So I had to play the newcomers against Fiji, and they learnt a lot from playing such a quality side."

South Africa are in Pool D with hosts, the USA, Kenya and Wales for the Sin City tournament.

The World Series log standings after round four in Sydney - 1 Fiji (69 points) 2 South Africa (69) 3 New Zealand (69) 4 Australia (54) 5 Argentina (54) 6 England (51) 7 United States (49) 8 Kenya (42) 9 France (29) 10 Samoa (28)

Morgan Piek/OFM News