Sevens
Blitzbokke beaten by NZ
2012-03-24 13:31
Johannesburg - The Springbok Sevens lost their final Pool B match 19-10 against New Zealand at the Hong Kong Sevens tournament on Saturday.
The
team still advanced to the cup quarterfinals, however, where they will
face Samoa on Sunday after they finished runners-up in their pool.
The New Zealanders ran in three tries in the first half which was enough for them to secure the top spot in their pool.
They
got the match off to a good start with Waisake Naholo scoring within
the first minute from the kickoff, with Mark Jackman converting.
Charles
Piutau and Jack Wilson also added five points each in the latter part
of the first half, with Jackman converting only one of the tries, to
take their score to 19-0 going into the half-time break.
The
Blitzbokke made a superb start to the second half as the physical Cornel
Hendricks got through a tackle to score after 40 seconds of play, with
Cecil Afrika converting (19-5).
The New Zealanders could count
themselves lucky after Piutau received a lifeline from referee George
Clancy who neglected to give him a yellow card for a blatant shoulder
charge on Pieter Engelbrecht.
Piutau was finally sin-binned for a
tip-tackle but it was another controversial decision as the
indiscretion warranted a red card.
The Blitzbokke made reckless
mistakes, bad decisions and failed to capitalise on the advantage of
having an extra man on the field.
They did well in the end to keep the New Zealanders scoreless in the second half and managing to score a try at the death.
Chris Dry followed a brilliant cross kick from Afrika to score in the right-hand corner but Afrika missed the conversion.
Earlier,
the Blitzbokke beat the United States 15-7 as they ran in three tries
with Afrika, William Small-Smith and Stephan Dippenaar each scoring a
try.
Quarter-final line-up:Fiji v Argentina
Australia v England
Samoa v South Africa
New Zealand v Wales
Semi-final line-up:Winner Fiji/Argentina v Winner Australia/England
Winner Samoa/South Africa v Winner New Zealand/Wales