Blitzboks book England quarter-final
THE Blitzboks may not have made their first day of the London leg of the World Sevens Series as “special” as they would have liked to, but they did enough to book a quarter-final spot against England today (12.42pm SA time).
In the build-up to the last leg of the series, Blitzboks playmaker Rosko Specman said they wanted to make the last event of the series a “special one”, and, although they had to be happy with a 24-12 defeat to the US in their last match on Day One, there were a number of special moments.
Against the US, who now top Pool A, the Blitzboks scored two tries to the US’S three, and the Americans were first to get points on the scoresheet when England hooker Stephen Tomasin put in a brilliant kickahead before gathering it.
He was taken down and managed to get an offload away, before quickly getting back up on his feet to run in support and finish off the movehe started way back in his own half.
The Blitzboks’ Ruhan Nel added one of those special moments for Neil Powell’s team when he neatly gathered his own perfectly-hooked chip kick to finish off his already-impressive move with a strong run to score, and Cecil Afrika made no mistake with the conversion to level the scores.
Ben Pinkelman responded with another try for the North Americans, but the Blitzboks’ Siviwe Soyizwapi made sure his team didn’t trail on the scoreboard too long with a stunning try.
And as brilliant as Soyizwapi’s silky running at blistering pace down touch was,credit should go to Werner Kok for his huge work chasing down a chip kick and securing the ball on the ground. And, to top it all off, he got an accurate little pop away to Soyizwapi.
But that’s where the scoring ended for the Blitzboks, but not for the US, with Andrew Durutalo running in a last fivepointer.
Earlier in the day, the Blitzboks dealt with Wales (12-10) in their second Day One fixture, and after being 5-0 down, Specman created some magic when he produced a stunning run and showed his freakish ability to accelerate off the mark when he scored the Blitzboks’ first try of the match.
Skipper Philip Snyman also impressed before sliding over in the corner, and in the dying seconds, Wales failed to convert their second try that would have levelled the score.
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