Cape Town – The South African Sevens team have crashed out of the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament in the semi-final stage against England in San Francisco.

The Blitzboks went down 29-7 after trailing 17-7 at half-time.

The Blitzboks opened the scoring through Selvyn Davids who expertly converted his own try from the touchline.

However, England responded with a try by Harry Glover and then a second through captain Tom Mitchell moments later. Both conversions were missed.

England then went further ahead in injury-time of the first half when Ruaridh McConnochie dotted down for England’s third try, which was converted by Mitchell.

Despite dominating the early stages of the second half, it was crucially England who got on the scoreboard first in the second half with an unconverted try by Oliver Lindsay-Hague.

England then rubbed further salt into the Blitzboks’ wounds with a final converted try by speedster Dan Norton.

England will play New Zealand in the final (02:53 SA time on Monday) in a repeat of the 2013 showpiece clash, while the Blitzboks will face Fiji (02:24 SA time) in the battle for bronze after the All Blacks were shock 22-17 winners in their semi-final against Fiji.

Past Rugby World Cup Sevens winners:

1993

Venue: Edinburgh, Scotland

Winner: England

Runners-up: Australia

1997

Venue: Hong Kong

Winner: Fiji

Runners-up: South Africa

2001

Venue: Mar del Plata, Argentina

Winner: New Zealand

Runners-up: Australia

2005 

Venue: Hong Kong

Winner: Fiji

Runners-up: New Zealand

2009

Venue: Dubai

Winner: Wales

Runners-up: Argentina

2013

Venue: Moscow

Winner: New Zealand

Runners-up: England