Gutsy Blitzboks down USA to advance to Cup quarter-finals in Toulouse

The Blitzboks were facing an early exit after kicking off their campaign in Toulouse with a 31-7 drubbing at the hands of hosts France on Friday afternoon, but they bounced back strongly to beat Fiji 24-7 in the pouring rain last night and capped off their impressive comeback the next day by downing the USA by the same margin to emerge from a very tough group with their heads held high and bound for the playoffs.

The South Africans scored four tries to one, finding their groove after a tight first half to run away with it in the second.

They opened the scoring in the first minute. From the first line-out in the match, the ball was worked wide and when recycled, Ronald Brown spotted a gap and ran 80 meters to score.

The USA came back strong when shrugged off a weak Shaun Williams tackle to score, with the conversion pushing the North Americans ahead at the break.

Dewald Human was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle, but the SA defence held firm for the remainder of the half.

The second half started well again for the SA side and Christie Grobbelaar sliced through the USA defence to score under the sticks.

Human converted and scored himself soon after a lovely Blitzboks attack, with Justin Geduld and Ryan Oosthuizen involved as well. Human converted for 19-7 scoreline.

Geduld then made a clutch tackle to snuff out a dangerous USA attack before Williams held off two defenders to score in the corner.

Scorers

South Africa 24 (5) - Tries: Ronald Brown, Christie Grobbelaar, Dewald Human, Shaun Williams. Conversions: Human (2).

USA 7 (7) - Try: Malacci Esdale. Conversion: Steve Tomasin.