South Africa beat Canada 19-17 to walk away in third place after an entertaining and close match. South Africa finished as pool leaders after beating Russia 40-5, France 31-5, and Kenya 26-7. The Blitzbok also saw off Fiji 31-26 in the quarterfinals but fell to the eventual winners New Zealand, 12-19 in the cup semi-finals.
The third place play-off against Canada – who had lost to Argentina in the semi-finals – was started off by Siviwe Soyizwapi who got the hosts off to the perfect start before Canada’s Harry Jones crossed the try line for the Canadians.
Ruhan Nel reclaimed the lead for the Blitzbok on the stroke of half-time and they began from where they left off as Rosko Specman exploited the Canadian defense and scored first right after the break.
Canada was not ready to just take a beating and they hit straight back through a try from Nathan Hirayama. The South Africans, however, stuck to their guns and won the match with a difference of two.
Kenya finished second in its pool after beating Russia 34-0 but lost to France 14-21 and South Africa 7-26. They faced Samoa in the Challenge Trophy quarter-finals and also lost 15-19, then won the 13th place semi-final against Scotland (33-12), and later won the 13th place play-off against Uganda (24-14).
Uganda lost all its pool games against England (0-36), Scotland (0-45) and Argentina (7-43). Things went from bad to worse when they faced Australia in the Challenge Trophy quarter-finals and also lost 12-47. Their only win came against Russia during the 13th place semi-final where they managed to win it 28-19. Uganda then lost the 13th place play-off to their neighbors Kenya.
