Blitzboks shock New Zealand to storm into Olympics sevens semis

Heroic defence helped the Blitzboks shock New Zealand 14-7 in the Sevens quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Paris on Thursday evening.

Having qualified for the tournament through the repechage backdoor, and then even the quarterfinals after two defeats in pool play, the Blitzboks showed huge resolve to down one of the tournament favourites to reach the semifinals.

Reaching the semifinals eclipses their performance at the Tokyo Olympics where they were knocked out by Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Selvyn Davids led from the front as he helped inspire his team into an early lead and they doggedly held on despite wave upon wave of Kiwi attack.

Both teams made a nervy start with handling errors the order of the day. In mitigation, the 9pm kickoff in St Denis however made for a greasy ball.

New Zealand's resources were stretched and they were forced into making late changes to their line-up. Their jittery start cost them as the Blitzboks through captain Davids struck first. With the Kiwi defence on the back foot he turned on the pace and burst through two defenders for a converted try.

New Zealand played with more resolve but the crucially fluffed their lines with the try line at their mercy later in the opening half allowing the Blitzboks to pounce. They surged upfield off the back of a Davids punt, the skipper then toed ahead before collecting the ball and feeding Tristan Leyds in support with no Kiwi in sight.

The men in black however, through Moses Leo sped around Davids to score a converted try just before the break.

With Kiwi talisman Scott Curry dominating the line-outs the Blitzboks were forced to make more tackles. Crucially, they held their nerve.

New Zealand started to make their size advantage count as they routinely bounced a Blitzbok off in the tackle. Thankfully for the South Africans their scramble defence was from the top drawer.

The Blitzboks' stoic defence between the fourth and the sixth minute of the second half had the crowd in full voice.

They made more telling tackles in the last move of the game to move into the semifinals.

Hosts France also advanced to the semis with a 26-14 win over Argentina.