HSBC SVNS: South Africa and Spain show grit to reach men's semi-finals

Spain will play Argentina and South Africa will face New Zealand in Sunday's men's semi-finals of the HSBC SVNS World Championship at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles.

CHAMPIONSHIP POOL A

"Now the hard work starts," said South Africa head coach Philip Snyman after his team had beaten HSBC SVNS League champions Argentina 29-21 to top Pool A in day one's final match and set up a semi with New Zealand. "We need to be a lot more clinical than today." 

When Siviwe Soyizwapi was sin-binned and Los Pumas' Matteo Graziano and German Schulz had immediately made it 14-7 against the Blitzboks, one fancied the South Americans to make sure they would finish top of the pile.

But in Ryan Oosthuizen South Africa have power and a player with an eye for a try, and in Soyizwapi a man determined to make up for the damage done in his absence. The result? Two South Africa tries to sway the game in their favour and a subsequent rare defeat for Argentina.

Earlier South Africa had beaten France 19-10 having been two scores down before Selvyn Davids, Shilton van Wyk and powerhouse Zain Davids turned things around. France were still dangerous and it took a wonderful chase back by Tristan Leyds to fell Gregoire Arfeuil to finally quell their opponents.

If that were something to savour, so too was the crossfield kick by Santiago Mare into the path of Matias Osadczuk on his way to scoring in Argentina's 33-26 win over Great Britain. The combination of Mare's absolute assuredness and the way he relaxed his body ahead of the kick made it a special sporting moment in California.

Britain pushed South Africa close when those teams met. Britain's Harry Glover seemed convinced he had touched down under a mass of players to level it at 12-all at the death but the TMO thought differently and the Blitzboks won by five points.

CHAMPIONSHIP POOL B

The final matches of Pool B provided incredible tension and showed sevens rugby at its best. A third win for Australia, following their 15-10 victory over Spain and a 15-14 success against Fiji, would have guaranteed their place in the semi-finals.

However, New Zealand went into the game knowing they simply had to win. Earlier in the day, Sofai Maka's try was the difference in their 17-12 win over Fiji but they lost a thriller against Spain 7-5. 

Australia and New Zealand were locked at 14 points apiece when Ngarohi McGarvey-Black was sin-binned. Australia made them pay immediately when Ben Dalton scored, but McGarvey-Black returned to the fray to pass the ball out the back door for Brady Rush to spear through the amber jerseys and make it 21-19. 

The drama wasn't over. With 59 seconds left, Australia won a penalty within kicking distance but decided to run it and in the third minute of added time they crossed the line - only for the TMO to conclude that no angle showed the ball having been touched down.

That meant Spain knew they would have to beat Fiji, already out of the picture, by eight points or more to join New Zealand in the last four.

Tries by Alejandro Laforga and Juan Ramos gave them a 12-0 advantage but Kavekini Tanivanuakula's score for Fiji meant it would be Australia and not Spain going through from Pool B. An Eduardo Lopez try to make it 19-5 looked to have won it for Spain and eliminated Australia but again Fiji hit back to make it a seven-point game.

But in the very last seconds, Jeremy Trevithick ran in at the corner to seal a last-four spot and leave Australia out on points difference. Such are the tiny margins in elite sport.

"I'm really happy," said Spain coach Paco Hernandez. "We did a good job during the season and now we have to focus on tomorrow. We knew it was eight points difference, we scored the winning try and it’s amazing."

PLAY-OFFS POOL A

USA won both their day one matches as they target a place in next season's HSBC SVNS Division 2, part of the new format. Two points further back, on four, are Samoa and Kenya, while Portugal have zero points. The final pool matches take place in Sunday's early action.

PLAY-OFFS POOL B

Uruguay lead Pool B with two wins and have qualified for Division 2, while Germany and Canada won one game each. Ireland have a losing bonus point on the table so far.