Ricardo Duarttee celebrates a Blitzboks try. Photo: SA Rugby

Ricardo Duarttee celebrates a Blitzboks try. Photo: SA Rugby

Blitzboks: Kick-off time for semi-final against Samoa

The Blitzboks look well-placed to challenge for a memorable Cape Town Sevens title after impressing on Saturday.

Ricardo Duarttee celebrates a Blitzboks try. Photo: SA Rugby

Ricardo Duarttee celebrates a Blitzboks try. Photo: SA Rugby

The Blitzboks team will play Samoa in the Cup semi-finals of the Cape Town Sevens on Sunday after maintaining a victorious clean sheet on a day of highly competitive sevens action, beating Fiji, France and Great Britain to not only top their pool, but also eliminate the British team from the trophy race.

The Springboks Sevens beat Fiji 17-7 in their second pool game before putting in a polished display in their final pool game against France, winning 26-7. The quarter-final against Great Britain ended in a 21-14 win for South Africa – match reports available here.

The match against Samoa starts at 15h46. In the first semi-final, USA will meet New Zealand at 15h24.

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Blitzboks head coach Sandile Ngcobo was a relieved man at the conclusion of day two and said the three victories were based on hard work and a team playing for each other.

“We need to do all of that again on Sunday if we want to do justice to the efforts today,” the coach warned. “We had some big games today and the team fought hard for each other and that was very pleasing to see. Fiji will always be a tough opponent, but we applied good pressure at the right time.

“The match against France was a different challenge and again we managed to adapt and use very good defence to get the win.”

The Blitzboks beat Samoa in Dubai last weekend, but Ngcobo is not looking at past results.

“We will need to put our shoulders into their bodies and make proper hits if we want to be successful. They are a very good team and will come at us all day.”

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The Blitzboks and Springbok Women’s team face challenging clashes on Sunday

Springbok Women’s Sevens interim coach Renfred Dazel lamented the close 17-14 defeat to Spain in their final Pool A game on Saturday, but praised the squad for the continued improvement they made as the tournament progressed.

The result means that the Springbok Women’s Sevens will play for ninth place at their home event and incidentally, will meet Spain again on Sunday (at 08h22). In the other semi-final in that bracket, Japan and Brazil will clash at 08h00.

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