Blitzboks beat Spain to stay in Cup hunt

The Blitzboks made hard work of it but eventually ran out comfortable 27-7 winners over Spain in their second Toulouse Sevens match in France on Friday afternoon.

The Blitzboks were desperate to bounce back with their first win of the competition after they were shocked by Ireland in their World Sevens Series event opener earlier in the day.

The win just keeps the Blitzboks in the running for the Cup quarterfinals but they will need to beat Samoa in their final pool match on Saturday morning to stand any chance of going through.

Samoa won both their pool matches, 42-12 against Spain and 27-14 against Ireland, while Ireland’s surprise 21-12 win over the Blitzboks, means that they can go through with a big win over Spain in their final pool match.

Strong first half

In the match it was a strong showing from Spain in the first half that made the Blitzboks work incredibly hard for a try on the half time hooter to edge ahead 10-7 at the break.

Powerhouse Zain Davids scored both first half tries for the Blitzboks, in opposite corners, either side a converted try to Spain’s Enrique Bolinches.

The Blitzboks then managed to hold onto the ball for the majority of the second half, duly running in three unanswered tries.

Captain Siviwe Soyizwapi was the first to be put away after a scrum near the halfway ended with Branco du Preez finding Soyizwapi near the left hand touchline with him scoring in the corner.

Aggressive defence straight from the kick-off then saw the Blitzboks power Spain deep into their 22m and tackle them out, with Ronald Brown running around to score from the resulting line out, and converting his own try for a 22-7 lead.

With the match sewn up the Blitzboks then finished with a flourish as JC Pretorius made the initial break, before the recycled ball found its way to debutant Delvon Blood to run in his first try for the team.