Rugby Sevens - Team South Africa

Nickname
Blitzboks

General
South Africa won bronze at the inaugural Olympic sevens tournament in Rio in 2016. They topped Pool B with two wins and one loss to advance to the quarterfinals, where they dispatched Australia 22-5, avenging their defeat to the Australian team in the pool phase. Having led the British team 5-0 at half-time in the last four, they conceded seven unanswered points in the second half to miss out on a shot at gold. They claimed their place on the podium, however, with a resounding 54-14 bronze medal match win over Japan.

South Africa qualified for Tokyo by finishing fourth in the 2018/19 World Series, which was their first World Series finish outside the top two since 2011/12. They were champions of the 2008/09 edition, and then won consecutive titles in 2016/17 and 2017/18 to take their tally to three World Series titles, placing them third for overall titles behind New Zealand and Fiji. They returned to the top two in the 2019/20 Series, trailing leaders New Zealand by 11 points when the season was ended prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite their success in the World Series, the South African team has never won a World Cup title. At the 2018 edition in San Francisco, they produced their best performance in more than two decades to finish third. They lost out to England in the semifinals before overcoming Fiji 24-19 in the bronze medal match, falling just short of their tournament-best runners-up finish of 1997.