South Africa's Blitzboks secured back-to-back HSBC SVNS titles in Cape Town with a thrilling 21-19 victory over Argentina in the final. Despite trailing at halftime, they mounted a comeback driven by tries from Sonwabo Sakoyi and Christie Grobbelaar. The win moves them to the top of the World Series standings.
The HSBC Cape Town SVNS concluded with the Blitzboks defending their title in a tense final against Argentina at Cape Town Stadium. Argentina took an early 7-0 lead through Luciano Gonzalez, and extended it to 19-7 in the second half. However, debutant Sonwabo Sakoyi scored a spectacular solo try to narrow the gap to 19-14, followed by Christie Grobbelaar's decisive try for a 21-19 win.
The match highlighted the team's resilience amid injuries to Ronald Brown and Tristan Leyds, who failed his head injury assessment after the 22-17 semifinal victory over France. Sakoyi, reflecting on his debut, said: “It’s any kid’s dream to make their debut in Cape Town. I don’t have words to describe the feeling.”
Earlier, South Africa navigated a tough pool stage: a 24-21 win over Fiji, where Shilton van Wyk scored a hat-trick; a 19-14 comeback against New Zealand despite yellow cards and errors; and a dominant 41-7 rout of Great Britain. Coach Philip Snyman praised the effort: “We knew it was going to be tough... a lot of heart, a lot of effort and attitude.”
Off the field, over 68,000 fans created an electric atmosphere with performances by Jimmy Nevis and YoungstaCPT, plus a DJ set by Siya Kolisi. Selvyn Davids noted: “Of course we can hear the fans, we feed off their energy.” The Blitzboks, now on 32 points tied for first, became the first team in nearly a decade to win consecutive Cape Town titles. The series resumes in Singapore on January 31.