Blitzboks down Ireland to reach quarters

The Blitzboks effectively sealed their place in the cup quarterfinals with a solid 19-12 win over Ireland in their second match of the London Sevens on Saturday afternoon.

Following on from their strong 26-19 win over Argentina in their first game, the Blitzboks were made to work by Ireland and comeback in the second half to get the positive result.

It was a back and forth first half as the Blitzboks and Ireland both made early attacks into each other’s territory, without coming away with points.

Impi Visser then conceded a silly yellow card after a professional foul at a ruck, giving Ireland a man advantage for two minutes.

However the Blitzboks played superbly with a man less and starved Ireland of the ball and managed to escape unscathed.

This allowed them to take the lead on the stroke of half time as back to their full complement the Blitzboks went blind after a great counter ruck, with Zain Davids going over in the right hand corner and Ronald Brown converted from touch to put them 7-0 up at the break.

Disastrous start

It was then a disastrous start to the second half for the Blitzboks as Ireland struck twice to take an early 12-7 lead.

Both were poor kick off receipts from the Blitzboks, with Jordan Conroy intercepting a pass from Zain Davids to run in and then Ireland claimed their own kick off with Terry Kennedy receiving the pass to run into the left corner, while Billy Dardis slotting the first try.

The Blitzboks then finally managed to respond, putting Ireland under pressure in their own 22m, ripping the ball and ending with Mfundo Ndhlovu going over for a converted score to retake the lead.

The Blitzboks then made the game safe with a minute to go as Angelo Davids went over in the left hand corner to seal a good win.

The Blitzboks now have one more pool game today against Kenya (kick-off 5:08pm).