Impressive Blitzboks through to meet Spain in Cape Town semifinals

The Springbok Sevens team will face Spain at on Sunday (1.56pm) in the first cup semifinal of the HSBC Sevens Cape Town after winning both their pool matches in impressive fashion on Saturday.

The Blitzboks scored six tries as they beat Ireland 36-7 and followed that up with another impressive 29-5 victory over Argentina in front of 33,481 fans at Cape Town Stadium, with Ricardo Duarttee bagging two tries.

Duarttee scored in the first minute from an attacking scrum and followed that up with his second when the Pumas were down to six when one of their players was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle on Dewald Human.

Human scored the third on the stroke of half time and converted to hand South Africa a 17-0 lead at the break, with their defensive pressure forcing mistakes from the Argentineans.

Matías Osadczuk pulled one back for the visitors with three minutes left on the clock before what would have been Duarttee's third try was disallowed by the TMO. Shilton van Wyk and Shaun Williams added two cherries on top with two tries towards the end of the game.

Against Ireland, Quewin Nortje and Impi Visser scored two tries apiece, after David Brits had opened the scoring from a strong run by Donavan Don, while Mfundo Ndhlovu dotted down towards the end.

It was a clinical performance by the Blitzboks, as they had Ireland under pressure for most of the clash. Though they made some errors, the only costly lapse by the South Africans was a ninth-minute try by Josh Costello.

France won both their games, including a 47-15 drubbing of New Zealand, to qualify for the cup semifinals along with Spain, Fiji and South Africa.

Fiji face France in the second semifinal (2.18pm). 

Also on Saturday, , in the women’s competition, Australia, New Zealand, France and the US won both their matches to progress to Sunday’s cup semifinals.

Scorers

Blitzboks 36 (24) — Tries: David Brits, Quewin Nortje (2), Impi Visser (2), Mfundo Ndhlovu. Conversions: Ricardo Duarttee (2), Shaun Williams.

Ireland 7 (0) — Try: Josh Costello. Conversion: Tadhg Brophy.

Blitzboks 29 (17) — Tries: Ricardo Duarttee (2), Dewald Human, Shilton van Wyk, Shaun Williams. Conversions: Human, Williams.

Argentina 5 (0) — Try: Matías Osadczuk.

SA Rugby