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South Africa’s men’s Sevens booked another semi-final in the HSBC SVNS series by finishing unbeaten in Pool A at the Vancouver leg. They were to face Australia at 10.33pm (SA time) on Sunday in the first semi-final, while Fiji and Spain will contest the second last four knockout match.
South Africa outplayed Great Britain (21-5), Spain (28-7) and New Zealand (17-12) at BC Place to finish top of their pool. They contested semi-finals in Cape Town, Singapore and Perth in the previous three events, winning at home and in Australia last month.
Good defence laid the foundation for the success of the first day.
They were a bit slow out of the blocks in their first match though, as they conceded a couple of penalties at the breakdown, but once Ronald Brown made a break to score the opening try, more fluency on attack followed. Brown’s opener was the only points in the first half.
Team GB scored first in the second half, but the SA side upped the tempo with several bench players making an impact, such as Ryan Oosthuizen, who alongside Shilton van Wyk scored the second half tries.
Against Spain, it was again a matter of patience. The Spaniards were full of running after a confidence boosting win over New Zealand in their first game. Brown again opened the scoring as he darted around the blind side from a scrum in the only points of an evenly contested first half.
The second half belonged to South Africa as they tested and overcame the Spanish defence. Sebastiaan Jobb raced in from 70 metres (pictured) following a great break and soon after Shilton van Wyk dotted down after another good attacking spell. Tristan Leyds dotted down for the fourth try and converted.
A great start against New Zealand sealed the deal. Impi Visser scored after an impressive long-range effort by the skipper and Shilton van Wyk followed soon after to extend the lead. A third try by Siviwe Soyizwapi late in the first half pushed the lead out to 17 points.
New Zealand, having to win the match to stay in the tournament, rallied well in the second half, scoring twice, but some good turnovers by Selvyn Davids and Dewald Human eased the pressure and South Africa could finish the day unbeaten.
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