Sibusiso Sithole became a Sevens wonder when he powered his way to a brilliant solo try in the dying seconds of Edinburgh Sevens Cup Final last night.
The brilliant effort enabled the Springbok Sevens to score a magnificent 38-35 victory over Australia at the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens on a freezing Sunday evening.
The win was one of the most remarkable turnaround performances by any team in a HSBC Sevens World Series Cup final.
Decimated by Injury, the BlitzBokke, who had only two fit reserves available for the final, came back from being 7-28 down to snatch victory at the very end of an epic Cup final at Murrayfield, the spiritual home of Sevens rugby.
Their win was also the team’s first successive Cup title victories since 2008, when they won the Dubai and George tournaments within the space of two weeks. Last week Kyle Brown’s team captured the London Sevens crown at Twickenham.
Also, the team leapfrogged a disappointing England team to finished second overall on the HSBC Sevens World Series standings with 140 points, only 16 behind champions New Zealand.
The Springbok Sevens lost Branco du Preez (ankle) and Neil Powell (rib) on Saturday already through injury and on Sunday they also had to play the final without inspirational skipper Kyle Brown (ankle) while Paul Delport was carried off on a stretcher midway through the first half of the absorbing first half. He sustained concussion and his condition was described as stable afterwards.
Australia, who lost 19-5 against South Africa in the pool stages on Saturday, started in determined fashion and scored three tries to one to lead 21-7 at halftime. Bernard Foley (2) and Jonathon Lance scored for the Aussies while Steven Hunt scored the solo SA try. Delport then injured himself when he rushed to stop an attack, injuring his head in the process.
Henry Vanderglas scored straight from the restart to stretch the Aussie led to 28-7 before Frankie Horne and Bernado Botha reduced the deficit to 28-19. Foley then scored what appeared to be the match winner for Australia, but South Africa had other ideas.
The impressive Steven Hunt scored again in the corner before Sibusiso Sithole gathered the ball from a ruck, and with the sound of the siren in the background, powered his way through the defence to score the match-winning try.
The team played in four of the last five World Series tournament finals, scooping three tournament titles on offer in Las Vegas, London and Edinburg.
Paul Treu described the fight-back as unbelievable. “Australia made a good start and we had to give it everything we got. We were severely disrupted by the injuries and apart from the injured players, Frankie also shouldered on bravely despite hurting his knee early on Saturday.
“What can you say after a performance like that? They refused to give in and South Africa can be very proud of these young men,” said Treu.
30/05/2011 at 4:40 PM
Guys, I have a confession.. watching the game, and when it got to 28-7, I turned off. The Ozzies were playing well, and without a full strength team, I felt sorry for the remaining players. What a dork I was – I missed out watching one of the best finals that 7′s rugby has ever seen – and it was produced by you guys. Damn, it makes me proud to be a South African. Saying “Well done” is so corny, and a C RE US understatement. You guys rock… The NZ boykies better watch out at the next 7′s season, there are a new bunch of players that are going to take them out BIG TIME – Go Bokke