Springbok Sevens settle for fourth after impressive Spain snatch victory

Earlier in the day, the South Africans suffered an agonising extra-time loss to hosts Australia in the semi-finals to miss out on the gold medal match.

Perhaps still suffering the effects of that defeat, they went down 14-7 to Spain in the bronze medal match, although they arguably only had themselves to blame after two first-half yellow cards in short succession had them on the ropes.

First Shilton van Wyk was carded before Ronald Brown followed less than 30 seconds later. Van Wyk was pinged for trying to intercept a pass, while Brown got sent to the bin for kicking the ball away after a penalty call.

Spain took full advantage of these costly errors, with Eduardo Lopez scoring shortly after, but great defence by the remaining five players held the Spanish at bay for the remainder of the half.

The Blitzboks were already without injured Zane Davids, Zander Reynders and Dewald Human for their final match, but they kept fighting. Selvyn Davids pulled the scores level 11 minutes in with a great break and when Brown converted it was all square again.

Spain got the final score though, with Juan Ramos running into a gap close to the referee to score and convert. The Blitzboks had one more chance to score but kicked ahead and the bounce denied them.

The tournament was emphatically won by Argentina, who defeated hosts Australia 41-5 in the final to spoil the Australia Day party.  

READ MORE: Blitzboks suffer heartbreaking extra-time loss to Australia in Perth semi-finals