Blitzboks make it two from two on day one in Singapore

Blitzboks coach Philip Snyman was a confident man going into the Singapore Sevens tournament and his players rewarded him, and their country, with a good start to the event on Friday.

The SA Sevens team recorded wins against Spain (31-7) and Samoa (15-10) to be well placed in their group ahead of Saturday’s matches. In their final pool game on Saturday, the Blitzboks face France (8.24am SA time).

In total, Snyman’s team scored eight tries and conceded three in their two matches on Friday and they now look well set to reach the quarter-finals.

Return of Soyizwapi

“Our first goal for the tournament was to focus on the game against Spain and then take the next one as it comes, so we’re on the right track at the moment and it was good to wrap up day one with two from two,” said Siviwe Soyizwapi, who made his first appearance of the season after months on the sidelines with an injury.

“You’ll always feel nervous coming back from a long spell on the sidelines, but as soon as I made that first contact it was all guns blazing from there. I really enjoyed being out there today, and taking in each and every moment.”

Soyizwapi warned his team-mates to be mindful of the France side on Saturday: “They are really playing well at the moment, they finished well in the last tournament and brought good momentum here.

“We weren’t perfect and will have to work on a few things in our own game, even though we went two from two, so we’ll have to analyse the French team for when we face them first thing tomorrow morning.”

Scorers:

South Africa 31 (12) Spain 7 (9)
SA – Tries: Selvyn Davids, Dewald Human, Impi Visser, Tristan Leyds, Rosko Specman. Conversions: Human (2), Selvyn Davids.
Spain – Try: Enrique Bolinches. Conversion: Juan Martinez.

South Africa 15 (5) Samoa 10 (5)
SA – Tries: Selvyn Davids, Quewin Nortje, Shilton van Wyk.
Samoa – Tries: Uaina Tui Sione, Daniel Patelesio.