The SA Under-17 Sevens squad returned from Dakar with South Africa's first-ever Youth Olympic Games medal, coach Sandile Ngcobo lauding the group's character after two remarkable comebacks on the final day of competition.
After winning all three pool matches on Sunday, the SA U17s trailed Argentina 12-0 in Monday's semi-final before fighting back to win 24-12. The gold medal match against France proved equally dramatic: South Africa clawed back from 21-5 down at half-time to 21-19 with a minute remaining, only for a late French try to seal a 26-19 win and the gold medal. France had demolished Canada 58-0 in their semi-final.
South Africa finished fourth in 2018 — the only previous Youth Olympics rugby sevens competition the country has contested, with the 2022 edition not held — making Monday's silver a landmark result for the programme.
Ngcobo placed the achievement in context, noting that Argentina and France had been building squads for two years, while his group had just weeks of preparation, were simultaneously sitting school exams, and play very little sevens rugby at age-group level.
"It's a massive achievement if you look at where we started a couple of months ago to where we finished today, with the boys needing to convert from 15s to sevens rugby," he said.
On the final itself, Ngcobo acknowledged that self-inflicted errors rather than French brilliance opened the gap. "The tries we conceded in the final were from errors on our side; the French didn't actually have to work hard for it. So, if we just minimized those, we would have been in the game."
The Blitzboks played a role in preparing the squad for Dakar. "They helped us prepare as well, and the boys wanted to leave the jersey in a better place for the next generation," said Ngcobo, expressing hope that the silver medal gives future SA U17 squads a standard to surpass.