They will face Australia at 21h33 (SA time) on Sunday in the first semi-final in Vancouver, while Fiji and Spain will contest the second semi-final.

South Africa outplayed Great Britain (21-5), Spain (28-7) and New Zealand (17-12) at BC Place to finish top of their pool. They contested semi-finals in Cape Town, Singapore and Perth in the previous three events, winning at home and in Australia last month.

Good defence laid the foundation for the success of the first day. They missed very few one-on-one tackles, kept their discipline and outworked their opponents.

The Blitzboks were a bit slow out of the blocks in their first match though, as they conceded a couple of penalties at the breakdown, but once Ronald Brown made a break to score the opening try, more fluency on attack followed. Brown's opener was the only points in the first half against Great Britain.

GB scored first in the second half, but the Blitzboks upped the tempo with several replacements making an impact, such as Ryan Oosthuizen, who alongside Shilton van Wyk scored the second half tries.

Against Spain, it was again a matter of patience. The Spaniards were full of running after a confidence boosting win over New Zealand in their first pool game. Brown again opened the scoring as he darted around the blind side from a scrum for the only points of an evenly contested first half.

The second half belonged to South Africa as they tested and overcame the Spanish defence. Sebastiaan Jobb raced in from 70m following a great break and soon after Van Wyk dotted down after another good attacking spell. Tristan Leyds scored the fourth try and converted before Spain scored in the last play of the match.

A great start against New Zealand sealed the deal for the Blitzboks. Impi Visser scored after an impressive long-range effort by the skipper and Van Wyk followed soon after to extend the lead. A third try by Siviwe Soyizwapi late in the first half pushed the Blitzboks' lead at the break out to 17-0.

New Zealand, having to win the match to stay in the tournament, rallied well in the second half, scoring twice, but some good turnovers by Selvyn Davids and Dewald Human eased the pressure and the Blitzboks could finish the day unbeaten.

Scorers:

South Africa 21 (7), Great Britain 5 (0)
SA - Tries: Ronald Brown, Shilton van Wyk, Ryan Oosthuizen. Conversions: Brown, Dewald Human (2).
GB - Try: Finley Lloyd-Gilmour.

South Africa 28 (7), Spain 7 (0)
SA - Tries: Ronald Brown, Sebastiaan Jobb, Shilton van Wyk, Tristan Leyds. Conversions: Brown (3), Leyds.
Spain - Try: Jeremy Trevithick. Conversion: Roberto Ponce.

South Africa 17 (17), New Zealand 12 (0)
SA - Tries: Impi Visser, Shilton van Wyk, Siviwe Soyizwapi. Conversion: Ronald Brown.
NZ - Tries: Rob Rush, Frank Vaenuku. Conversion: Akuila Rokolisoa.