Poor results from the Sevens Series legs in Los Angeles and Vancouver have seen the Blitzboks tumble down the rankings with their hopes of qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games on the line.
Having claimed a silver medal – their second podium finish of the season – in Sydney, the Springbok Sevens side went into the North American leg of the campaign looking to build on that and further enhance their chances of finishing in the top four.
However, the Blitzboks only managed one win in five matches in Los Angeles last weekend and finished in 13th position at the Canada Sevens early on Monday morning (SA time), which was their worst finish ever in a tournament they won three times in the last five years.
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The team also failed to qualify for the quarter-finals from their pool in Vancouver (with fellow Pool B opponents Argentina and France contesting the final, and the South Americans winning the tournament), which saw the Blitzboks dropping to seventh on the World Series log after arriving in LA in second place.
The American horror show has left South Africa five points away from fourth-placed Fiji, with the Asian leg of the calendar set to get underway in Hong Kong in just over three weeks.
The 2023 season is an Olympic qualifier and the top four teams will earn automatic qualification for Paris 2024.
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Photo: Twitter/@Blitzboks