The French secured a comfortable 31-7 win over the South Africans, dimming their hope of automatic qualification into the Olympics. The Blitzboks viewed the Toulouse 7’s as an opportunity to ease into the Olympics by making it to the last two rounds of the sevens tournament, an achievement which will be most welcomed seeing that they’ve had to endure a rather difficult season thus far. 

Theo Forner opened the scoreboard for the French 3 minutes into the first half and Jordan Sepho followed suit. With conversions from Paulin Reva and Stephen Parez Edo Martin the hosts closed the first half on a comfortable 12-0. 

Scoring 5 tries throughout the game secured France a comfortable 31 point win over the undisciplined Blitzboks. 

Despite errors in the second half, the Blitzboks touched down at the hands of James Murphy converted by Ricardo Duartee ensuring they put numbers to the board a few minutes into the second half. 

The hosts walked away from the game with a good start to their home tournament but for South Africa, they have their work cut out for them if they are to ensure themselves a spot in the semi-finals. 

The Blitzboks will face Fiji in a crucial game tonight at 21:03. 

Fiji, on the other hand, beat USA 21-12 in their Pool C clash. SA will face the USA at 1:49pm on Saturday in their final pool game.

Scorers:

South Africa 7 (0) - Try: James Murphy. Conversion: Ricardo Duarttee.

France 31 (12) - Tries: Theo Forner, Jordan Sepho (2), William Iraguha (2). Conversions: Paulin Riva, Stephen Parez, Edo Martin, Thibaud Mazzoleni.

Kayla Barker/ OFM Sport