“Blitzboks ready for wounded Kiwis” – Werner Kok

After two Pool fixtures in this year’s Cape Town Sevens, the Blitzboks have looked good for all money, and will be hoping to make it three wins in three in their final match in the round-robin stage on Saturday evening.

The hosts came into the second leg of the World Rugby Sevens series reeling from the disappointment of exiting the Dubai leg in the cup quartefinals, but dusted themselves off with a convincing performance against Samoa, beating them 22-12 in their opening game.

This was before putting neighbours, Zimbabwe to the sword, winning 43-0, thanks to a clinical performance headlined by a hattrick from the flying Siviwe Soyizwapi.

The match that followed directly after that was one between another pair of neighbours, as Samoa took on New Zealand in a tense encounter in which the former burgled a win after the buzzer had sounded to win it 21-17.

The result gave a different dynamic to the day’s closing match, as it means the Kiwis will have to beat the Blitzboks’ to remain in the running for top honours in Cape Town.

Blitzboks looking to improve against New Zealand

Despite that, Blitzboks flyer Werner Kok told TheSouthAfrican that his side is ready for what ever the 12-time series champions throw at them later this evening.

“I think we will be (ready for them), we’re gonna take each game as we took the first one. We just want to improve on the Zim game… we’re not gonna look at a win, or a lose there.

“I think we’re going into it just to do the processes well, just do the basics well and, if we come on top, we’re very happy with it.”

Werner Kok

Kok said he was pleased by the gradual improvement shown in the two games that have passed and was hoping for further improvement against New Zealand.

“We made big step up from the Samoa game. We controlled the game much better than we did in the Samoa game, but we’re just gonna look at the little things we still can do better in the Zim game, and just take it to New Zealand.”

Werner Kok

New Zealand and South Africa close proceedings on the first day of the Cape Town Sevens. Kick off is at 19:56.