Cape Town - The Springbok Sevens team qualified for the Commonwealth Games quarter-finals after winning their first two games, but there is still room for improvement.
Those were the thoughts of coach Neil Powell after his side beat Malaysia and Tonga on Day One of the quadrennial event.
The SA team beat Malaysia 46-0 on Friday morning before overcoming Tonga 36-5 the evening.
“We had a slow start in the first game against Malaysia, and we asked the guys to make a step up against Tonga, especially in terms of physicality, and I think they did that really well.
“Unfortunately, we conceded the one try, which was disappointing because we pride ourselves on our defence, but I think it was a massive step-up from the first game, and hopefully we can improve on that when we play Scotland tomorrow.
“The last time we played Scotland, we lost and hopefully we learned something from that experience. For us to top our pool, we thought it was probably going to come down to this game, so we already had a look at them and hopefully the guys will be up for it tomorrow.”
🗣️ A few words from SA team captain Siviwe Soyizwapi at the end of the first day of @birminghamcg22. Two from two, with Scotland waiting at 13h18 on Saturday. #BestofUs @TeamSA2024 pic.twitter.com/CjJY4Q4clE
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) July 29, 2022
In their first match against Tonga since 2019, South Africa held a 17-5 lead at the break.
JC Pretorius and Sako Makata added tries in the first three minutes of the second half to stretch SA’s lead to 29-5, but they then lost Mfundo Ndhlovu to a dangerous tackle by Tonga’s John Ika, who was red carded.
After losing Ndhlovu, Dewald Human had added a try, which he converted himself.
“We would have loved to get Mfundo onto the park a bit more as he recently returned from a serious injury, but it looks like he took a bad shot to his jaw, and he will probably be out for the rest of the tournament, although we’ve not seen the final medical assessment yet,” added Powell.
“We are happy with the results, but we will have to take a look at both games as we made a few errors and it wasn’t the clinical performance we were looking for, but it was a good day and we have something to build on with a lot of positives.”
In their Pool B opener, Angelo Davids scored a hat-trick as the South Africans ran in eight tries in total after holding a 22-0 lead at half time.
The 46-0 result in the Pool B opener marked the first time ever that the two teams have met.
The South Africans scored eight unanswered tries and held a comfortable 22-0 lead at the break after Angelo Davids scored a brace and Muller du Plessis and Selvyn Davids ran in a try a piece.
Powell rang the changes in the second half, with regular skipper Siviwe Soyizwapi scoring after coming on, before fellow replacement Dewald Human added impact with one of his own.
Skipper for the match, Zain Davids completed completed the scoring.
South Africa will face Scotland in their final pool game at 1.18pm on Saturday.
Scorers:
South Africa Sevens 46 (22) - Tries: Angelo Davids (3), Muller du Plessis, Selvyn Davids, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Dewald Human, Zain Davids. Conversions: Ronald Brown (2), Human.
Their final pool game is at 1.18pm on Saturday against Scotland.
Scorers:
South Africa 36 (17) – Tries: Siviwe Soyizwapi, Christie Grobbelaar (2), JC Pretorius, Sako Makata, Dewald Human. Conversions: Ronald Brown (2), Human.
Tonga 5 (5) – Try: Samisoni Asi.
Scorers:
South Africa 46 (22) – Tries: Angelo Davids (3), Muller du Plessis, Selvyn Davids, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Dewald Human, Zain Davids. Conversions: Ronald Brown (2), Human.
Malaysia 0
The Springbok Women's Sevens team, meanwhile, had two tough pool games on the first day of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Friday, losing to Australia in their first clash (38-0) before going down against a determined Fijiana side in their second pool game (41-0).