More pain for Bok sevens teams in LA

The Blitzboks suffered a second consecutive Pool defeat to Ireland in the Los Angeles Sevens on Friday night, conceding three tries in a 17-0 loss.

The Irish backed up last week's 22-10 triumph in Vancouver, with another quick start taking advantage of poor handling by the South Africans, who spilt the ball at the kickoff, allowing Connor O’Sullivan to score a converted try in the opening minute.

The Irish kept that momentum for most of the half, playing almost all of their rugby in the Blitzboks' half and enjoying 90% of the possession. They outworked the South African defence two more times, with Zac Ward, crossing the try line on two occasions to give the Irish a 17-0 lead at the break.

The Blitzboks showed improvement in the second half, but they just could not cross the Irish line. They were pinged at the breakdown and when in possession, gave it away or kicked ahead, with no result.

They will have to improve dramatically in their next match against log leaders, Argentina, if they want to make it into the final eight. The match starts at 8.36pm (SA time)

Meanwhile, the SA Women's team, suffered a 41-5 defeat to New Zealand, winners in Vancouver last week.

The Black Ferns started where they left in Canada, immediately gaining the ascendancy to score in the opening minute and a minute later they had two in the bag, again after having all the momentum with ball in hand. Three more tries followed before the break, with the Kiwis up 29-0, two of their tries scored by Shiray Kaka, as the SA Women were totally outplayed and hardly had any possession.

The second half delivered another quick start from the Kiwis, who raced to 41-0 before Ayanda Malinga ran 70 meters to score, having snatched up a loose pass from her opponents.

The last two minutes was the best of the match for SA, who finally managed to put some nice phases together and even forced New Zealand into conceding a yellow card at the breakdown. That kind of fluency will be needed again on Saturday night when they face Fiji, who were beaten by Brazil in their pool match, at 10.26pm (SA time).