Blitzboks end disappointing World Cup on high note | The Citizen

The Blitzboks saved their best performance of the Sevens World Cup for their least important game as they enjoyed a thumping 35-5 win over Samoa in the seventh/eighth placed playoff to at least see off coach Neil Powell on a positive note.

The Blitzboks had a bitterly disappointing World Cup, after picking up a routine win over Chile in their opening game, they suffered shock defeats against Ireland and Argentina, which meant the highest they could finish was seventh.

Powell, who now heads to the Sharks to take over the Director of Rugby position, was unhappy with the overall performance but happy with the finish.

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“Earlier in the tournament they were not the results that we wanted. But the guys did well to respond to the call to come out for the last time and show what they are capable of,” said Powell.

“Especially in front of our home crowd where everyone came out to see the Springboks. So happy with the end result, but unfortunately we couldn’t get into the final and give ourselves a chance to compete for a medal.”

Perfect start

In the game the Blitzboks got off to the perfect start as Sako Makata bumped off a defender and powered over for a converted score after two minutes.

Angelo Davids then almost scored, but stepped into touch, but made sure of his second chance, chasing down a kick through to score as they took a 14-0 lead within five minutes.

Samoa then conceded a penalty try on the halftime hooter as Paul Scanlan illegally stopped Ronald Brown from scoring making it 21-0 at the break.

The second half was then more of the same for the hosts as captain Siviwe Soyizwapi scored soon after the restart and JC Pretorius intercepted a Samoan attack to sprint away to score as they powered into a 35-0 lead, before Samoa scored a consolation try on the fulltime hooter.

In the end it was a good way to finish, but an extremely disappointing tournament overall, as the Blitzboks only seemed to play to their ability in the final match.

SA women’s sevens

The South African women’s team closed out their Sevens World Cup campaign on a low note as they went down 21-19 to China, to end in 14^th place, having won just one game.

That win came yesterday evening when they confidently downed Columbia to get themselves up and running, putting them into the 13^th placed playoff, but it was another game of missed opportunities that condemned the SA women to their third loss of the tournament.

The SA women actually got off to a great start against China, with Eloise Webb stepping a defender and going over for the opening score after just two minutes, but China hit back with two converted tries to lead 14-5 at the break.

The SA women then responded at the start of the second half, with Zintle Mpupha scoring and Nadine Roos converting, to bring the deficit to two points, only for China to respond again with a converted score, making Marlize de Bruin’s try after the hooter a consolation score.