SA Sevens team in strong start at Safland Sevens in Namibia

Nov 14 • General News, International, Sevens Rugby • 1272 Views • Comments Off on SA Sevens team in strong start at Safland Sevens in Namibia

South Africa’s sevens rugby team scored three convincing wins on the opening day of the Safland Sevens tournament, played at The Dome in Swakopmund, Namibia on Saturday.

The side scored good wins over the national teams of Germany and Namibia and impressed against an SA Select side, where winger Siviwe Soyizwapi scored four tries in the first half of the match.

The South African side started with good rhythm against Germany in their opening match. The European side showed good physicality and defense, but could not prevent the Blitzboks romping in for five tries during the match.

Three of those came in the first half, courtesy of an opener by Kyle Brown and two solid efforts by Soyizwapi and Philip Snyman.

In the second half, Branco du Preez and Rosko Specman ran in unconverted tries for a 27-0 win. Very few errors were made by South Africa and this performance laid a good foundation of what was to follow.

In their second match of the day, against an SA Select team, the team showed ominous form. Soyizwapi scored four tries in seven minutes to lay down the law and the 26-0 lead was a testimony of the precision on the attack by South Africa.

In the second half, tries by Branco du Preez, Stephan Dippenaar, and Rosko Specman helped the scoreboard roll along to a 43-0 win. There was some poor handling from the Select side, but the Blitzboks showed their appetite to win, pouncing on every mistake from the Gauteng-based side.

In their third match, against Namibia, the hosts did manage to keep the free running South Africans at bay in the opening minutes and also attacked strongly.

Once the opening try was scored by Tim Agaba though, two more by Werner Kok and Soyizwapi eased South Africa into a 21-0 lead at the break.

The second half saw a more productive play by South Africa. Kyle Brown opened the scoring, followed by Branco du Preez and Chris Dry with fine efforts, resulting in a final score of 42-0.

The team plays Kenya at 10h40 on Sunday in their final pool match. The knock-out phase of the competition starts at 12h00.

Issued by SA Rugby Communications