South Africa undefeated at Roma Sevens: Day 1
South Africa undefeated at Roma Sevens: Day 1
The Springbok Sevens training squad won all three of their pool matches on the opening day of the Roma Sevens tournament, played in the URC stadium in Rome on Friday.
The South Africans had way too much firepower for their opponents on day one and scored 156 points without any reply.
In their opening match, they beat Fiamme Oro 33-0, smashed the Geneva Barbarians 69-0 in the second match and finished the day off by beating Clandestinos 54-0.
Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu included a number of Vodacom Super Rugby players released by their franchises for the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament, to be played in Moscow, Russia on June28-30 and was keen for them to get a decent run.
Despite the blow-out scores, Treu was very pleased.
“It was quite hot and that was hard on the players. We did rotate them all the time in order to give everyone a good go and I was not disappointed with the results. There was a high work ethic from all and the intensity was pretty good,” Treu said.
“We also improved as the day progressed. The first half of the first match was sluggish, but after that, we really played well. So many guys showed their class.”
Three contracted players, Kyle Brown, Ruwellyn Isbell and Mark Richards, played in their first tournament of the year following long-term injuries and came through the day well.
“The guys who came from fifteens also played very well and I can see I will have some tough calls to make in finalising the squad for Moscow. We had to start somewhere and the standard was pretty high from the beginning,” Treu said.
“We should be tested more tomorrow and will probably meet the national teams of Italy and France, which is good. Our first match is only after 20h00 and the final around midnight, something that will also test the players.”
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