The Blitzboks recovered from two yellow cards to overtake New Zealand with a second-half surge at the Cape Town Sevens on Saturday.
South Africa won 19-14 after trailing 7-0 at half-time to book their place in Sunday’s semi-finals, having fought back to beat Fiji 24-21 earlier in the day.
The hosts’ final pool match is against Great Britain (7:41pm), who lost to New Zealand (29-12) and Fiji (21-17).
The Blitzboks got off to the worst possible start against New Zealand when Impi Visser was yellow-carded after just two minutes.
The Dubai champions wasted no time in taking advantage, Tone Ng Shiu crossing the whitewash a minute later, with Sofai Notoa-Tipo slotting the conversion.
It got even worse for the home side when Shilton van Wyk, the hat-trick hero against Fiji, was also given a yellow after five minutes.
Somehow, though, the Blitzboks managed to hang in until half-time.
The second half saw an extraordinary performance by the men in green, who stormed back, first through a try by Donovan Don, which was converted by Tristan Leyds to draw level.
Nobody is stopping Donavan Don
Stream #HSBCSVNSCPT on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/bR2L9Cpajj
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) December 6, 2025
Van Wyk then made up for his earlier yellow by scoring his team’s second converted try to give South Africa a 14-7 lead.
It got even better as a fired-up Blitzboks grabbed a third try against a stunned New Zealand, Ronald Brown this time touching down. However, he was unable to convert and the home side led 19-7.
There was still time for New Zealand to score through Scott Gregory, but it was too little too late.
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
The post Blitzboks stun New Zealand to reach semis appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.