Bok 7s off to winning start

Cecil Afika opened the scoring for the Blitzbokke by chipping the stretched Russian defence. He also converted the try.

Russia were quick to reply, and with only Afrika's conversion separating the teams at the half-time break, it was clear that the new Springbok Sevens stars were still trying to find their feet.

After a few harsh words by coach Paul Treu, debutant Bernado Botha scored his team's second try of the match shortly after the restart.

From that point the Springboks kicked into second gear and looked in control of proceedings.

Kyle Brown added the third from the returning kick-off, but a slip-up in defence handed Russia their second try in the final minute of the match.

Treu's side next face Scotland who were outclassed 41-14 by Australia earlier on Friday. The match starts at 13:30.

Scorers:

Springboks: 19 (7) Tries - Cecil Afrika, Bernado Botha, Kyle Brown. Conversions - Afrika, Renfred Dazel

Russia: 10 (5) Tries - Nikolay Goroshilov, Dmitriy Perov