The Blitzboks faced Australia in Madrid in the fifth-place semi-final on Sunday and booked their place in the 5th-place final against Ireland with a 24-21 win.
Once again simple defensive errors cost the Blitzboks when Matthew Gonzalez slipped a tackle to open the scoring after two minutes of play. Rosko Specman was the Blitzboks' immediate response when Tristan Leyds gifted him a try after great footwork by Tristan Leyds to level the scores.
From the kickoff, Ryan Oosthuizen took a pass from Australia to put the Blitzboks in the lead with an easy try. The Blitzboks' third "try" was disallowed, however, they did go into halftime leading 12-07.
Australia struck first in the second half to retake the lead 14-12 when Ben Dowling burst through three tackles to score Australia's second try.
A brilliant Quewin Nortje followed up his kick from within the Blitzboks 22m, outsprinting several Australian defenders to score under the poles with four minutes to play. The Blitzboks scored their fourth try when Sylvin Davids put Siviwe Soyizwape into space out wide to extend their lead to 24-14.
Despite a late try by Australia's James Turner, the Blitzboks did enough to win 21-24 to progress to the 5th-place playoff against Ireland at 14:29 (SA Time)
Scorers:
Blitzboks: Tries: Rosko Specman, Ryan Oosthuizen Quewin Nortje, Siviwe Soyizwape. Conversions: Tristan Leyds (2).
Australia: Tries: Matthew Gonzalez, Ben Dowling, James Turner. Conversions: Dietrich Roache (3)
Teams:
Blitzboks: Quewin Nortje, Shaun Williams, Kat Letebele, Tiaan Pretorius, Rosko Specman, Impi Visser, Justin Geduld. Replacements: Ryan Oosthuizen, Tristan Leyds, Siviwe Soyizwape, Selvyn Davids, Christie Grobbelaar.
Australia: Henry Hutchison, Ben Dowling, Matthew Gonzalez, Michael Icely, Nathan Lawson, James Turner, Dietrich Roache. Replacements: Tim Clement, Josh Turner, Nick Malouf, Henry Paterson, Hayden Sargeant.