HONG KONG – The Blitzboks went down 21-12 to the USA in their quarterfinal match at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in Hong Kong, China on Sunday.
The South Africans were outscored 2 tries to 1 at the break when they trailed 14-7.
Impi Visser managed to get the first points of the match in the 2nd minute with Selvyn Davids slotting the conversion.
However, the Americans, who were surprisingly beaten 21-19 by Wales in the group stage on Saturday, never gave up and took advantage of some hesitant Blitzboks defending, with Carlin Isles scoring a brace of tries.
Visser scored his second five-pointer of the match at the start of the second half to bring the Blitzboks to within 2 points of the Americans, but Ben Pinkelman stretched the advantage to 19-12 to the USA in the 10th minute.
Madison Hughes kicked over his third conversion of the match.