Shakes Soyizwapi stars on tough day for Blitzboks

The Springbok Sevens team’s search for a fifth World Rugby Sevens Series title will continue on Sunday when the Blitzboks take on Australia in the Cup quarterfinals of the Singapore tournament.

The fixture in the Singapore National Stadium will see an eighth consecutive Cup quarterfinal appearance for Philip Snyman and his troops, but hard work awaits against the Australians.

“Yes indeed, the Australians are playing pretty well at the moment. We need to be at our best, trust our system and eliminate the silly mistakes we are making at times,” Snyman said on Saturday.

“You need to be able to beat any team in the quarterfinal if you want to win the title, but that only takes you to the semis, where more hard work awaits,” Snyman said.

The captain was disappointed, but not down in the dumps, after their final pool B match against England, a game lost 12-17.

England scored from the kick-off after South Africa fumbled the ball, but a try by Werner Kok late in the half helped the Blitzboks to a 7-5 lead at the break.

That was short-lived, however, as England scored from the second half restart again and then extended the lead a minute later to lead 17-7.

Tim Agaba ran hard and straight for his first try of the year, but time ran out for the Blitzboks.

“We are playing against ourselves as well. We need to protect the ball better and not give them soft turnovers and points,” lamented Snyman.

Earlier the Blitzboks had to pull out all the stops against France, edging the Europeans 10-7.

Shakes Soyizwapi scored an unconverted try either side of half-time, but also conceded a yellow card that allowed the French to score a comeback try.

The South African defence held up though.

“France were up for it, they managed to beat England in their opening match and provided us with a tough match,” Snyman admitted.

In their opening match in pool B, South Africa totally outplayed Japan, winning 52-0. The South African attack proved pretty clinical in this match, with Soyizwapi scoring a hat-trick and Zain Davids, who is playing in his sixth tournament, dotting down for the first time.

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