Singapore Sevens: South Africa beat Fiji in final as Hong Kong settle for 14th place
- Blitzboks prevail 20-19 to strengthen their hopes of an automatic place in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
An improved outing on day two of the Singapore Sevens saw Hong Kong competitive with the Challenge Trophy teams, including sides like Wales and Spain, who are in danger of relegation at the end of the current Series, with Ireland, who beat Hong Kong in the qualifier final at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens last weekend, set to take their place next year.
South Africa, meanwhile, won the tournament for their second victory of the HSBC World Sevens Series, beating Hong Kong Sevens winners Fiji 20-19 in a thrilling final to edge closer to confirming an automatic place at next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Hong Kong lost 19-17 to Wales in their quarter-final before going down 38-12 to Spain to finish in 14th place.
Captain Max Woodward identified the many positives from the weekend saying: “Obviously, we were disappointed with how we showed yesterday, so today was about putting that right and having a go at the teams. We did that pretty well in the first game and were a bit unlucky not to beat Wales.
“The second game we didn’t play our game again, we were a bit tentative and stood off them too much.