Hosts France scored three late tries to beat South Africa 19-5 and reach the gold medal match of the Paris Olympics on Saturday afternoon.
Having beaten New Zealand in the quarter-finals on Thursday, the men in green and gold were looking to emulate the Springboks, who beat France at the same venue last year to reach the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup.
After a pointless first half, South Africa were quickest off the mark when Tristan Leyds went over the line to score the first points of the game.
Having been on top for much of the game at that point, it looked like the men in green would do enough to win the match and advance to the final at the venue where the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup last year.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as the hosts, riding on a wave of support from the partisan home crowd, scored under the posts through Rayan Rebbadji after a mistake from the South Africans.
A further try from Rebbadj, and a third from Jordan Sepho were enough to see the French walk away from the tie as victors.
The Blitzboks still have a chance to win a medal at the games, and will play for the bronze medal at 7pm on Saturday night, where they will play the loser of the second semi-final between Australia and Fiji.
Earlier on Saturday, the South African men’s hockey team began their Olympics campaign with a 5-3 loss to the Netherlands.
Having been down 5-1 at one stage, South Africa did well to come back to 5-3, and will be looking to take that momentum into their next game against Great Britain on Sunday.
IOL Sport