A lacklustre Blitzboks advanced to the quarterfinals of the Sydney World Sevens Series yesterday despite losing their final pool match against England.
The Blitzboks went down 21-15 to England in what was a dead rubber game after both had earlier won their pool matches against Japan and Kenya.
England remain the only team to have beaten SA during the 2016/17 World Series after winning the Cape Town final 19-17 against the hosts last December.
It was only SA's second defeat in 21 games so far this season.
story_article_left1
But it didn't deny the Blitzboks a place in the Cup quarterfinals and they will now face the USA in the last eight, while England take on Argentina.
New Zealand, Fiji, Australia and Wales are the other quarterfinalists.
After winning the Wellington Sevens tournament so convincingly last week, the Blitzboks were well below par by their own lofty standards, despite starting the day with a resounding 32-0 win over Japan.
Seabelo Senatla, in his final tournament of the season before joining the Stormers for Super Rugby duty, scored a hat-trick. He added a further two tries later in the day against Kenya and England to take his career tally to 185 tries.
In their second match, against Kenya, SA laboured to a 14-7 win after trailing 7-0 at the break, but it was far from convincing.
England also struggled to overcome Kenya, winning 19-12 while putting Japan away 26-0 to set up the pool decider with the Blitzboks.
Against England, SA led 10-7 at the break and stretched the lead to 15-7 early in the second half after tries from Senatla, Chris Dry and Justin Geduld.
But England profited off some scrappy handling from SA and scored two late tries to take the victory and top Pool A.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 