Proud Ngcobo hails players after Blitzboks sail into Sydney semi-finals

The Blitzboks beat Uruguay (28-12) and New Zealand (17-14) in their Pool B matches before they knocked Ireland out of the Cup competition with a 26-12 victory in the quarter-finals on Saturday morning to keep their title hopes alive.

Christie Grobbelaar went over in the first minute as the men in green and gold went wide and Dalvon Blood delivered a delightful inside pass to allow Grobbelaar to race 55m downfield for the try, which became seven as Ricardo Duarttee added the conversion.

A few minutes later, Grobbelaar was in again, this time after Impi Visser shrugged off a few tackles before putting his fellow forward over from short range.

Ireland pulled one back by Aaron O'Sullivan with two minutes left before the break, but the Blitzboks had the final say in the first half when Shaun Williams' pin-point cross-kick found Shilton van Wyk on the right-hand side of the field, with Duarttee's conversion making it 19-7.

The Irish were first on the scoreboard in the second half when Andrew Smith went over after some missed tackles by the Blitzboks, with five minutes left in the match.

Moments later though, Jaiden Baron sealed the deal with some individual brilliance not long after he came on as a replacement.

Baron showed why he is nicknamed "The Wind" as he showed some superb soccer skills to kick the ball through for a try that he started and finished himself, although he was a bit lucky as the assistant referee missed a foot in touch as he was exhibiting his fancy footwork.

Ireland came with one final push, but the Blitzboks kept them at bay to advance to Sunday's semi-finals.

It was a huge improvement from last weekend in Hamilton, where the South Africans lost both matches in the knock-out stages. One of those defeats was against Ireland and for Ngcobo, their performance in Sydney against the same opponent was personal.

"Everybody agreed after Hamilton that we cannot be happy with those performances and that we needed to step up and represent the badge and all it stands for with everything we had," he said.

"The guys did that today and I am very proud. The performances today were for everyone that contributed to this effort and also for the injured players, guys like Selvyn Davids who returned home, Siviwe Soyizwapi and Ryan Oosthuizen, who got injured here.

"This performance also represented the guys back home in Stellenbosch and it was pleasing to see the effort. I am very proud."

Ngcobo said the way the players implemented the plan for each match was exactly what the coaching staff asked them to do: "We reminded them about the system and how that overrides any individual effort and we saw that out there.

"Defending like we did against New Zealand with six players on the field showed that the guys took it personal and trusted each other, that is one of the main ingredients in our system."

With regards to Sunday's semi-final against Fiji, Ngcobo said it will be important for the players to rest well and come back with the same mindset that highlighted their performances on Saturday.

The semi-final against Fiji will be at 07h28 SA time on Sunday. New Zealand and France will contest the other semi-final.

Scorers

Blitzboks 26 (19) - Tries: Christie Grobbelaar (2), Shilton van Wyk, Jaiden Baron. Conversions: Ricardo Duarttee (3).

Ireland 12 (7) - Tries: Aaron O'Sullivan, Andrew Smith. Conversion: Billy Dardis.