Men’s rugby sevens clinch Team South Africa’s first medal in Paris

They triumphed over Australia with a 26-19 victory, clinching the bronze at a packed and rainy Stade de France on Saturday night.

Ryan Oosthuizen said they wanted to prove a point, especially after a disappointing start to the competition had caused many at home to lose faith in them.

 France won gold after beating Fiji 28-7 in the final.

"I don't have words to put this into perspective, I mean I think the whole of South Africa, there's a whole lot of people that didn't back us especially after losing those two games and then. Sometimes you see those comments on the internet on Instagram, it does fuel you," Oosthuizen said.

"I think it's a message to all South Africans when the chips are down that's when you need to bat on us and I think we definitely showed that. We pulled a lot of inspiration from the Springboks of last year, how they represented the nation and yeah I think hopefully we did that, hopefully, people rallied us to also getting that bronze medal."

Shaun Williams scored the decisive try after the hooter, sealing the win for South Africa in front of 60 000 spectators who braved the wet and cold conditions.

Despite a 19-5 loss to France in the semi-finals, the team regained their pride with this bronze medal performance.

Despite being written off by many before their match against host nation France, Oosthuizen said the visit from the Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, along with the leaders of the South African Union, inspired them to persevere.

"We met minister Gayton Mckenzie yesterday, our CEO Rian [Oberholzer] and president Mark Alexender was also there so to give words of encouragement. It was awesome to see the messages from them, like I said we were the underdogs completely, no one gave us a chance," he added.

"I think it's a surprise for a lot of people that we are actually medallists like I said a lot of people wrote us off especially with the year we had but we backed ourselves. We knew what the potential was within ourselves, and we all give credit to coach Philly [Philip Snyman] and all the boys."