The Blitzboks claimed a convincing 36-0 win against Canada at the Singapore Sevens on Saturday. MARIETTE ADAMS reports.
The Springbok Sevens backed up their earlier victory against Scotland with a commanding performance that saw them wear down Canada’s sturdy defence to ultimately score six unanswered tries.
REPORT: Blitzboks power past Scotland
The match between the Blitzboks and rivals Fiji at 1:28pm (SA time) will now determine who tops Pool A.
Canada frustrated the Blitzboks early on by starving them of possession, but a mistake from the Maple Leaves’ best player, Nathan Hirayama, gave South Africa the opening they needed to seize control of the game. With his team attacking close to the 22, Hirayama flung a horrible pass that Justin Geduld read beautifully to pull off an intercept and score.
From the resultant kick-off, Werner Kok was at it again, forcing a turnover penalty. Unfortunately, captain Siviwe Soyizwapi couldn’t hold on to the ball.
But the Blitzboks did have the final say of the half when Ryan Oosthuizen went over against the six-man Canada defence.
South Africa blew Canada away in the second half.
Soyizwapi made up for his earlier mistake when another steal on the ground freed up Geduld to run at the line and engage two defenders before releasing the ball to the captain for an easy run-in.
South Africa then finished on a high as Kurt-Lee Arendse and Sakoyisa Makata came off the bench to score. Arendse bagged a quick-fire brace, while Makata’s sped away for his first-ever Blitzboks try, which drew wild celebrations from the team.
Photo: Sandra Ruhaut/Getty Images
