Blitzboks see off Samoa

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The Blitzboks scored four tries to beat Samoa 26-5 on day one of the Singapore Sevens on Saturday.

Drawn in a pool alongside Argentina, Canada and Samoa, the Blitzboks needed to make a strong start against the Pacific Islanders, and they did.

Samoa dominated possession and territory in the first half, but smothering defence by the South Africans curbed their enthusiasm on attack.

The Blitzboks took the lead against the run of play, when they won a scrum on Samoa’s feed. Werner Kok secured possession and cantered away down the blindside for a converted try.

Samoa went close on the stroke of half-time, but the Blitzboks defended their line expertly and forced an error from the opposition to go into the break 7-0 up.

Much like the first half, Samoa retained possession after the restart and looked threatening on attack, but an error at the breakdown gave South Africa turnover possession from which they scored through Siviwe Soyizwapi.

Trailing 12-0, Samoa were finally rewarded for their dominance when captain Alamanda Motuga breached the defence to touch down.

The Blitzboks, though, were more clinical in their execution towards the backend of the match, as they ran in two unanswered tries to seal the win.

A penalty at the breakdown was taken quickly by Cecil Afrika and he released replacement Rosko Specman down the right flank. With the cover defender making his way across, Specman pulled off a spectacular Superman-like dive to score in the corner.

Youngster Muller du Plessis got his name on the scoresheet next, showing excellent vision, skill and strength to dot down in the corner despite taking a huge hit from a defender.

Blitzboks remaining fixtures (Day 1):

vs Canada (09:34)
vs Argentina (13:00)

Match centre

Photo: Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images

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Mariette Adams