Brilliant Blitzboks go back-to-back in BC Place

The Springbok Sevens claimed a third HSBC SVNS title of the 2026 season by outplaying Spain 38-12 at BC Place in Vancouver on Monday morning (SA time), a win that closed the series lead held by Fiji to just a points' differential.

South Africa and Fiji – who lost to Spain in the other semi-final – are both on 86 log points with one tournament left in the regular season, to be played in New York next weekend.

The Fijians are still top of the standings though, as they have a +201 points' differential, compared to the Blitzboks' +199 and they are the only two teams that can claim the overall series in the USA.

The Springbok Sevens side qualified for the final by beating Australia 19-12 in their semi-final late on Sunday evening (SA time), while Spain's 24-17 win over Fiji in the other top four match saw them progress to the final.

However, they ran into a Blitzbok blitzkrieg as the South Africans jumped into a 17-0 into the lead against Spain.

Ryan Oosthuizen scored after a quick tap penalty put him in possession 50m out and like in the Perth final las month, he grabbed the opening try of the match.

The Blitzboks' defensive alignment caused all sorts of problems to Spain, who panicked and tried elaborate passing to release pressure. Twice though, that resulted in turnovers and Sebastiaan Jobb and Shilton van Wyk scored for a 17-0 lead at the break.

Jobb ran onto a pinpoint pass from Tristan Leyds and Van Wyk chased down a Leyds grubber as South Africa stole a Spain line-out throw. Leyds was named Player of the Final for his exploits.

The second half delivered another masterclass from Impi Visser and his men. Van Wyk scored shortly after the restart as Spain were again pinged in their half and conceded possession.

They finally broke their deadlock when Jeremy Trevithick outpaced the tiring SA defence. From the restart though, Gino Cupido ran onto a Jobb pass to score and the successful conversion all but confirmed the result.

Spain added a second five-pointer before the final try was fittingly scored by Visser, who intercepted another stray Spain pass, with the Blitzbok captain running 50m to deliver the final blow.

Earlier on the second day, the Blitzboks outplayed Australia in their semi-final, coming from behind to win 19-12.

Ronald Brown opened the scoring after a good switch move with Oosthuizen left the Aussie defence flatfooted.

Brown then executed a try saving tackle as well, but that did not stop the Aussies to score twice in short succession to take a 12-7 lead into the break. At this stage, Australia targeted the breakdown to dominate possession.

The second half saw a change in fortunes though as the Blitzbok bench made the necessary impact to secure possession. David Brits scored in the corner after a determined run down the touchline and a delightful conversion by Leyds edged South Africa ahead 14-12.

A turnover by Visser in his own half then delivered the knock-out punch. The ball was recycled and Selvyn Davids dotted down on the opposite side to put South Africa 19-12 ahead.

With the clock in the red, Australia had one more sortie into the SA half but a handling error resulted in the Blitzboks earning a consecutive win over Australia, the same team they beat in Perth last month as they marched towards the title.

Springbok Sevens head coach Philip Snyman applauded his squad after a clinical performance in the final of the HSBC SVNS Vancouver as the Blitzboks grabbed their third title in five tournaments in the 2026 season.

“We really improved game by game and in the final, the guys were very clinical and delivered one of the best performances I have seen by the Springbok Sevens in a long time,” Snyman said.

“Our search for consistency is very important in our vision to become the best sevens system in the world and that starts at home. We aim to bring consistency into our training sessions as well, because that will flow over to tournaments and I am happy to see that happened here in Vancouver.

“We are not perfect yet but that is okay. I told the players they should not be scared to make mistakes, as long as it is aggressive mistakes and this weekend, I cannot fault the effort or performance the players put on the field.”

The Blitzbok coach said back-to-back tournament victories was another bonus: “We laid out some aims at the start of the season. We wanted to play in every semi-final and then improve on that by consistently making finals and winning them.

“Going back-to-back this weekend, with six changes to the squad that won in Perth, shows that we are getting there. The depth in the squad is very pleasing.

“The players will enjoy this win, but the job is not done as we are tied with Fiji on 86 points and with the final tournament of the series this coming weekend in New York, we have it all to do.”

Snyman said their ability on defence to create more turnovers proved vital in Vancouver and they will try even harder to get that success rate up more.

“Now it is a matter of recovery, getting back to zero again and start focussing on next weekend. It was a massive two days for us, but we will start all over again for the next one.”

Blitzboks captain Visser’s focus was already switching to next weekend in New York when he spoke on the sidelines immediately after the final. “It’s an amazing feeling,” he said of their win. “Sometimes we take it for granted but it’s an amazing feeling and we’re really grateful for it.

“We’ve had a lot of changes – six changes from Perth to now and the thing we said we want to build is consistency. I think we’ve shown that through and through. We just need to keep up this momentum going into New York.”

Fiji made it five podium finishes in five HSBC SVNS Series tournaments, beating Australia to claim third, while Argentina – who had won the past four tournaments in Vancouver – recovered from a disappointing day one performance to claim fifth place.

In the women’s competition, New Zealand extended their lead over Australia in the HSBC SVNS Series standings to eight points after claiming their fourth tournament title in five events this season.

Captain Risi Pouri-Lane pointed to the Black Ferns Sevens’ efforts to maintain consistency. “The biggest thing for us is that you can never get complacent and there’s always things you can work on and get better at. They make a big difference in the long run.”

USA beat France in the third-place play-off to end a nine-tournament wait for a podium finish, while Canada got the home crowd on their feet as they claimed fifth and Japan claimed seventh at the end of an end-to-end play-off against Great Britain.

Scores

Semi-final: South Africa 19 (7), Australia 12 (12)

SA - Tries: Ronald Brown, David Brits, Selvyn Davids. Conversions: Brown, Tristan Leyds.

Australia - Tries: Aden Ekanayake (2). Conversion: Dietrich Roache.

Final: South Africa 38 (17), Spain 12 (0)

SA - Tries: Ryan Oosthuizen, Sebastiaan Jobb, Shilton van Wyk (2), Gino Cupido, Impi Visser. Conversions: Ronald Brown (2), Dewald Human (2).

Spain - Tries: Jeremy Trevithick, Anton Legorburu Anso. Conversion: Juan Martinez.

Springbok Sevens squad for Vancouver and New York

#1 Christie Grobbelaar

#2 Ryan Oosthuizen

#3 Impi Visser (captain)

#7 Ronald Brown

#8 Selvyn Davids

#10 Dewald Human

#11 Siviwe Soyizwapi

#12 Shilton van Wyk

#15 Donavan Don

#16 Sebastiaan Jobb

#19 David Brits

#24 Tristan Leyds

#28 Grant de Jager

#35 Gino Cupido

2026 HSBC SVNS schedule

29-30 November: Dubai - NZL/NZL

6-7 December: Cape Town - SA/AUS

31 January-1 February: Singapore - FIJI/NZL

7-8 February: Perth - SA/NZL

7-8 March: Vancouver - SA/NZL

14-15 March: New York

17-19 April: Hong Kong (World Championship Series, Round 1)

29-31 May: Valladolid (World Championship Series, Round 2)

5-7 June: Bordeaux (World Championship Series, Round 3)