Blitzboks to face New Zealand in quarters of Dubai Sevens

The Springbok Sevens will face New Zealand Sevens at 09h10 (SA time) on Sunday in the Cup quarterfinals of the Emirates Dubai 7s after topping Pool A with a gritty and gripping 24-19 win over France in the deciding match of the day.

Earlier the Blitzboks outplayed Australia 17-0 before a shock defeat to Kenya, with the East Africans claiming continental bragging rights with an extra time try to win 22-19.

It would require more extra time in the final match of a thrilling opening day at The SEVENS Stadium in Dubai to determine the Pool A winner and six minutes into that extra phase Donavan Don sold the perfect dummy and raced 40 meters for a try and a win for the Blitzboks.

The way the win was secured, leading 12-0 and then conceding 19 points before scoring the last two tries would not have pleased coach Philip Snyman, but according to Don, the belief carried them through.

“We never stopped working for each other and off the ball and me finishing off that final try was credit to the whole team. I mean, Dewald Human got the turnover on our 25 and then we still needed some good passing and straight running to put me into space,” Don said afterwards.

In the final match, the Blitzboks were out of the blocks quickly with two tries and a 12-0 lead, but France pulled one back just before the buzzer.

The Olympic gold medal winners scored the next two tries as well and were up 19-12 with two minutes to play. Christie Grobbelaar scored his second of the match with four seconds left on the clock and Human converted to force extra time and a golden try.

Six minutes of that was played before Human won a turnover deep in the Blitzboks half and from that counter-attack, Don could race to glory.

The Blitzboks delivered a shocking performance in their second match against Kenya, who scored first after a strong opening spell. From the restart, where the Blitzboks were particularly poor, Kenya launched another attack and after a long kick chase the Kenyans had a second try and a 12-0 lead.

That jumped to 17-0 when Nygel Pettersan Amaitsa rounded the Bok defence to score in the corner.  The 17-0 lead at the break was fair reflection of play as the SA side did not have one visit to the Kenya 25.

The second half started well for the Blitzboks as they got more hands on the ball. Tristan Leyds scored after a good inside pass by Donovan Don and converted to cut the lead to 10.

Don then lost the ball over the line a minute later, but found space soon after to score his first try in Dubai and with two minutes left, the Blitzboks were five points down.

Sadly, Ryan Oosthuizen had to leave the field soon after a HIA and was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament.

Lady Luck kept looking away when Leyds was deemed in touch when he dived over in the corner, but from the resulting line-out Kenya’s clearance kick was charged down and Leyds’ dive onto the ball was the match equaliser.

He missed the conversion and scores were even. Kenya got the winner deep into injury time when Siviwe Soyizwapi could not gather a deep kick and Patrick Odongo Okong'o scored the match-winner after a couple of reviews from the TMO found downward pressure from the Kenyan.

In their opening match, the Blitzboks scored three tries without reply against Australia, beating their Southern Hemisphere opponents 17-0.

The defending champions were 12-0 up at the break and scored the solitary try of the second half shortly after the restart to take a 17-0 lead.

The Blitzboks were quick out of the blocks and had the Aussies under pressure for most of the opening half. Quewin Nortje scored three minutes in after he stepped inside a defender and two minutes later, Leyds converted good build-up phase play by his teammates. He converted his own try.

Leyds was at it again shortly after the restart, when he outfoxed two would-be tacklers for a 60-metre sprint to the line and a 17-0 lead.

The Aussies rallied well, but some determined defence by the Blitzboks kept them at bay, with a well-timed tackle on the corner flag by Zain Davids stopping a probable Aussie try.

Quarter finals for Sunday

08h48: Great Britain v Spain

09h10: South Africa v New Zealand

09h32: Fiji v France

09h54: Argentina v Australia

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