Ruthless Blitzboks power into Dubai final
South Africa extinguish the Samoans' fire, inspired by the tragic measles epidemic that has dogged the island.
Selvyn Davids of South Africa is tackled by Santiago Alvarez of Argentina during the Men’s Cup Quarterfinal match between Argentina and South Africa on Day Three of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series – Dubai at The Sevens Stadium on December 07, 2019 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
The Blitzboks will meet die old enemy, New Zealand, in the Cup final of the Dubai Sevens after producing a rousing performance in their last four battle against Samoa on Saturday.
What made this 38-7 victory so impressive was the fact that South Africa so clinically extinguished the islanders’ fire.
The Samoans had been riding on the wave of the tragic measles epidemic that has claimed no less than 63 lives on the island and inspired all with some wonderful showings over the last few days.
But Neil Powell’s troops simply weren’t in a mood to entertain any sort of sentimentality.
Ironically, the Blitzboks started badly after Justin Geduld fluffed the opening kickoff, allowing the Samoans to impose their physicality, which saw the nippy Paul Scanlan glide through a screaming gap left in the 22.
However, Samoa then kicked off directly into touch as well.
From that scrum, the South Africans played with a spring in their step, with Ruhan Nel’s delightful skip pass helping Zain Davids cut back in and give his opponents a taste of their own medicine by simply barging over.
It was, to be honest, a stroll after that equalising score.
Rosko Specman’s outrageous overhead off-load to Chris Dry put the Blitzboks in the lead, before Dry sublimely nudged a kickoff into Ryan Oosthuizen’s hands, the lanky, blonde-haired upcoming star running into the red zone and allowing Nel to throw another of THOSE passes for Shakes Soyizwapi to round off.
After the turnaround, the Blitzboks played the territory game, their suffocating manner squeezing the life out of the Samoans and also forcing cracks in their defence.
Notably, Seabelo Senatla started to thaw from his sevens hibernation with a fine cameo.
He held up one opposition tackler just long enough to give Nel his try, before scoring one of his own against a disheartened opposition.
Earlier in the day, the Blitzboks played within themselves to still comfortably dispose of Argentina in the quarterfinals.
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