South Africa's rugby sevens team rode a wave of emotion and answered supporters' wishes by sweeping their pool games at the IRB World Series event on Saturday in the stadium named for the man who was on all their minds.
Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth was at its noisiest when the host team appeared for warmups and went on to defeat Canada, Spain and Kenya in succession.
The crowd of 26,683 was also fiercely vocal when South Africa lined up in front of the other 15 teams on the field in mid-tournament to sing the national anthem and watch a moving video tribute to the beloved former president who died on Thursday.
"It's been a very emotional week, if not for South Africa then the entire world," captain Kyle Brown said. "There are elements there that we can use to drive us forward."
The South Africans, who haven't won their home sevens event since 2008, face Portugal in the quarterfinals on Sunday.
The other matches will be Fiji versus Samoa, New Zealand versus Kenya and Argentina v France.
Australia again failed to make the quarterfinals from Pool A, beating Scotland 31-19 but losing to Fiji 26-5 and France 19-12.
