PARIS, July 25 (Xinhua) — The second day of action in rugby sevens at the Stade de France saw one of the Olympic title favorites, New Zealand, eliminated, while France secured a confidence-boosting win against rivals Argentina in front of a fiery atmosphere on Thursday.
South Africa started day two without a win, having lost their opening matches to Ireland and New Zealand. However, they finally got their first win on the board and secured their best third-place position to earn a berth in the quarterfinals by defeating Japan 49-5.
After losing 17-5 on the first day to the unbeaten New Zealand, South Africa entered the quarterfinals as the clear underdogs against the All Blacks. However, it was the Blitzboks that started the brighter of the two. In the third minute, captain Selwyn Davids gave South Africa the lead.
New Zealand fought hard and began to put South Africa under pressure inside their own 22. However, Davids came to the rescue with a well-judged kick downfield, using his turn of speed to outpace the reversing All Blacks and run the length of the pitch. Regaining possession on the New Zealand 22-meter line, a sharp offload later, and Tristan Leyds was putting South Africa two tries up.
With the clock ticking down to zero in the first half, New Zealand was forced to keep possession for a full two minutes in overtime before Andrew Knewstubb was able to go over to cut the South African lead in half.
The second half became a tense affair with both teams unwilling to take risks and see their mistakes punished. Despite some probing runs and holding the ball, New Zealand could not break down the South African defense.
Seven minutes later, the half was over with the scores the same as at the end of the first, and the All Blacks were out of medal contention.
The second quarterfinal of the night saw hosts France defeat rivals Argentina 26-14. Argentina, who had spent the tournament as the number one enemy of the French crowd due to recent bad blood in soccer between the two nations, had a stellar first day, winning both games against Kenya and Samoa.
However, a loss to Australia in the final pool game earlier in the day had slowed the Argentina advance, much to the delight of the crowd.
France, who looked like they might be heading for a pool stage exit after drawing with the United States and narrowly beating Uruguay, managed to secure their quarterfinal place despite losing narrowly to Fiji.
Before the teams had even stepped on the field, the atmosphere was palpable. Emerging first, Argentina was welcomed to the grudge match with an explosion of booing. Yet, the boos were soon drowned out by thunderous cheers that signaled the arrival of France.
Backed by an unbelievable atmosphere as waves of “Allez Les Blue” and the French national anthem “La Marseilles” rolled around the Stade de France, France surged to a 14-0 lead before Grandidier Nkanang scored a beautiful try in the corner to give France a commanding lead over Argentina before the half.
Down 21-0 at halftime, Argentina came back immediately in the eighth minute to cut the lead by 14. The Pumas continued the heavy pressure throughout the half, even having two tries disallowed.
However, in the fourth minute, Jordan Sepho was sin-binned for foul play just five meters from his own try line. Down to six men, France was immediately punished by the Pumas, who scored their second try with five minutes of the half to play.
France was forced to keep their play tight and defend intelligently to mitigate the damage due to the yellow card.
With the time ticking down to zero, it was up to superstar Antoine Dupont to put the exclamation point on the match, taking a quick penalty and slicing through the open Argentine defense to crown an emphatic win in front of the home audience.
In the other quarterfinals, defending champions Fiji were forced to come from behind against the Republic of Ireland. After opening the scoring through Losefo Baleiwairiki’s individual brilliance, Ireland roared back into the game, scoring three consecutive albeit unconverted tries. Facing a shocking exit, Fiji were able to dig deep and hit back with two converted tries of their own to secure a hard-fought 19-15 victory.
In the final quarterfinal of the even, Australia secured a comfortable 18-0 whitewashing of the United States to secure their semifinal place.
The rugby sevens medals will be decided on July 27. In the semifinals, South Africa will take on hosts France, while defending champions Fiji will face off against Australia.
