Blitzboks through to semi-finals, Fiji lie in wait

Cape Town - The Springbok Sevens team will meet Fiji for a place in the final of the Rugby Sevens tournament at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia on Sunday.

The Blitzboks came through Pool A of the tournament with three convincing wins over Malaysia (43-0), Papua New Guinea (52-0) and Scotland (26-5) on Saturday.

The defending champions looked sharp throughout the day and closed out their performance with a strong second half against Scotland.

They were leading the Scots 7-0 at the break, but then scored three well-worked tries to ease into a 26-0 lead before the men in blue managed a consolation try.

In their opener, against Malaysia, South Africa scored at will on route to a 43-0 win.

The same happened against Papua New Guinea, with another eight tries bagged, with Ruhan Nel and Rosko Specman both getting a double.

"Yes, we played well today, laying a good foundation in those opening two matches," Springbok Sevens coach, Neil Powell said afterwards.

"We did not play that well against Scotland in the first half, making too many errors, but picked it up again nicely in the second half. We now face Fiji and if we make the same basic errors as against the Scots, they will punish us in the semi-finals. We need to make sure we play two halves of good rugby when we face them," said Powell.

Springbok Sevens captain, Philip Snyman, said their mind set against Scotland was one of a knock-out match.

“We approached it as a quarter-final. We did make some mistakes and need to cut those out. We will be in Fiji’s faces all day and try to force them to play to our structure. They will prefer an unstructured game, so it will be an interesting contest. We have two matches left to win a medal and is determined to do just that.”

Scorers:

South Africa v Malaysia

Tries: Dylan Sage, Justin Geduld (2), Branco du Preez, Tim Agaba, Philip Snyman, Rosko Specman

Conversions: Du Preez (2), Justin Geduld (2)

South Africa v Papua New Guinea

Tries: Dylan Sage, Werner Kok, Branco du Preez, Ruhan Nel (2), Rosko Specman (2), Zain Davids

Conversions: Branco du Preez (5), Cecil Afrika

South Africa v Scotland

Tries: Rosko Specman, Justin Geduld, Ruhan Nel, Cecil Afrika

Conversions: Justin Geduld (3)

The semi-finals are: (SA times)

03:43 - England v New Zealand

04:05 - South Africa v Fiji