Blitzboks face USA in quarters

The Springbok Sevens have made a great start to the defence of their Dubai Sevens title with a 100% record on Friday.

The Springbok Sevens have made a great start to the defence of their Dubai Sevens title with a 100% record on Friday.

After beating Samoa 33-7 and Russia 45-0 earlier in the day, the Blitzboks finished off with a hard-fought 26-12 victory over Scotland.

The Scottish defence proved to be much tougher to breach in comparison to the Samoans and Russians, and it needed some multi-phase play and good ball retention from the South Africans to create space out wide.

There was also some individual brilliance from the likes of Justin Geduld and Werner Kok, who wanted to put gas-man Seabelo Senatla away in the corners. They managed to do it twice, with the try created by Geduld the stand-out touchdown.

Geduld received the ball well inside the Blitzbok half and raced to the halfway line, where he moved to the side and flung a perfectly-weighted pass for Senatla, who sped away from the Scottish defence to give the South Africans a 14-5 lead in the first half.

But the Scots didn’t stop trying, and Mark Robertson’s controversial try before the break made it a two-point game.

Robertson clearly knocked the ball on inside the Bok Sevens’ half, but managed to re-gather the ball close to the tryline and scored. The Television Match Official (TMO) can only adjudicate on an incident near the goal-line when a try is scored or foul play, and he awarded the try as a result.

But the South Africans’ accuracy and discipline with ball-in-hand improved in the second half, while Rayno Benjamin made a decisive tackle on a Scottish player that saw the ball squirt out, and Juan de Jongh ran in almost untouched in the corner.

Blitzboks coach Neil Powell will be pleased with his team’s performances on day one ahead of Saturday’s Cup quarter-final against USA (10.06am SA time), with Senatla especially looking in fine form with six tries on Friday.

But South Africa will have to do without the services of classy playmaker Cecil Afrika, who hurt his hamstring against Samoa.

Scorers:

Springbok Sevens – Tries: Seabelo Senatla (2), Justin Geduld, Juan de Jongh. Conversions: Geduld (3).

Scotland – Tries: Scott Riddell, Mark Robertson. Conversions: Scott Wight (1).

ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za

@IndyCapeSport