Blitzboks power into Commonwealth Games semifinals

The Blitzboks put in their most dominant display of the Commonwealth Games so far as they powered to an impressive 33-0 win over Canada in their quarterfinal clash on Saturday night, to setup a semifinal meeting with Australia.

Canada had shown they could be a dangerous opponent by pushing Fiji hard in their pool match on Friday night, eventually going down 19-12, however the ruthless Blitzboks didn’t given them a sniff as they ran in five tries to none.

They will now face Australia in the competition semifinals on Sunday afternoon, after Australia just edged Samoa 7-0 in their quarterfinal encounter.

The Blitzboks had cruised into the quarterfinals with pool wins over Malaysia and Tonga on Friday, and a comfortable win over Scotland on Saturday afternoon and took that momentum into the knockouts.

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The South Africans got off to a good start in the match, working their way into the Canadian 22m, where Ronald Brown received the ball, stepped his way past three defenders and dotted down under the posts, converting his own score for a 7-0 lead.

Canada then tried to retain some possession, but a knock on at a scrum gave possession back to the Blitzboks, who attacked one way and back the other, with Christie Grobbelaar showing impressive strength to power through two players to score.

With the halftime hooter having sounded the Blitzboks unwisely tried to keep the ball alive, and were punished by conceding a penalty and then saw Brown yellow carded for a high tackle near their own tryline.

Canada then tried to make the extra man count but an attempted long pass out wide was superbly intercepted by Angelo Davids who sprinted away to score, giving the Blitzboks a comfortable 21-0 lead at the break.

The second half then saw the Blitzboks continue to punish Canadian mistakes as they ran in two more tries.

First Brown, back on the field after his two minutes in the sin bin, picked up a loose ball to sprint away and score his second in the right hand corner.

Canada then lost a lineout in their own 22m, allowing replacement Mfundo Ndlovu to go over under the poles and seal a decisive win for the Blitzboks.

Semifinal

Sunday

Blitzboks v Australia (2:04pm)

South Africa Women

It was another tough day at the office for the SA Women’s Sevens team as they suffered two more heavy defeats to head into the final day of the competition winless.

Their opening match on Saturday morning saw them show a bit of fight despite going down 33-12 against Scotland.

They trailed 26-5 at halftime but did well to draw the second half 7-all, while Liske Lategan and Donelle Snyders became their first try scorers of the competition.

The second match however saw them trounced heavily as England picked up a dominant 36-0 win.

The SA Women now have one last chance of picking a win when they play Sri Lanka in their final game of the tournament on Sunday evening.

7^th/8^th Playoff

Sunday

South Africa v Sri Lanka (7pm)