up South Africa

[sum41111]

Hello,

I saw below sentence and can't figure out the exact meaning of "up". I looked up the dictionary and it seems none of the meanings of "up" is appropriate.
Does it mean eventual runners from South Africa in the sentence?

Thanks vm!

/In 2014 on home soil, New Zealand had little to no build-up to the world championships, and ended up suffering two defeats at the hands of eventual runners up South Africa./

 

[Rover_KE]

There should be a hyphen in 'runners-up'.

South Africa came second in the championships.

 

[emsr2d2]

South Africa were eventually the runners-up.

Would you have understood it initially if the hyphen had been there?