Blitzboks into knockouts after solid start in Perth Sevens

The Blitzboks got their Perth Sevens campaign off to a solid start with wins over Canada and Spain on the opening day of the tournament Down Under, to seal their place in the next round ahead their final pool game against Argentina on Saturday morning.

It was a good effort from the South Africans, but they were pushed hard in both games before emerging with a 24-7 win over Canada and then a 21-14 win over Spain to take plenty of momentum into the second days play.

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In the opener against Canada the Blitzboks were punished for a slow start when the North Americans got in for the opening try, but unconverted scores to captain Selvyn Davids and Quewin Nortje gave them a 10-7 lead at halftime.

The second half then belonged to the Blitzboks as Davids ran in his second and debutant Tristan Leyds sniped over shortly after coming on to seal a comfortable win in the end.

The second game was similar to the first with the Blitzboks stunned by an early score to Spain, before tries to Ronald Brown and Nortje gave them a 14-7 lead at the break.

Davids extended the Blitzboks lead in the second half, before Spain fought to the end, hitting back with a late consolation score to end the match.

SA women

The South African women’s team are also in action in Perth, but ended their first day with two defeats after going down 31-0 to hosts Australia and 24-7 against Canada.

Their opener against the best women’s sevens team in the world on their home patch was always going to be a tough one and they did well not to let them completely run away with it.

But it was their second game against Canada that they may look back on with regret after they gave themselves a good chance of walking away with a positive result.

The SA women got off to a good start in that match, but were turned over on Canada’s 5m, allowing them to make their way up field and open the scoring, before the South Africans had a late chance to level the scores but ended up just short as the North Americans led 7-0 at halftime.

Canada were in for an early score in the second half, only for the SA women to hit back with a converted score to Zintle Mpupha to make it 12-7 with three minutes to play, but Canada finished strongly to take the win in the end.