Blitzbokke off to solid start

Cape Town - The Blitzbokke have started their world series quest impressively to win their first two matches of the Gold Coast Sevens competition.

New Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell would be a little more at ease after negotiating France and Spain respectively to get his career as national Sevens coach unblemished.

According to the supersport.com website, the Blitzbokke started exceptionally well against a motivated French team, who were particularly aggressive at the breakdown but handled the rush defence and produced some scintillating attack moves of their own to power to a 19-0 lead at the break before closing out the game 29-5.

Justin Geduld celebrated his return to the team and his place as primary playmaker in the game as he opened the scoring and he was followed on the score sheet by veteran Chris Dry and Stephan Dippenaar.

While France scored first in the second half through Paul Albaladejo, the Blitzbokke brought on fresh legs and watched as speedster Sampie Mastriet showed his pace to dot down before veteran and former captain Frankie Horne powered his way over from close to the line.

The Blitzbokke never had many problems with Spain in their second game, romping home 38-7 in a game where the scoreline could have been a lot higher.

Geduld was again first on the scoreline after breaking a poor tackle and running in unaided, while Horne and captain Kyle Brown all crossed the whitewash before the break.

After halftime the romp continued as Geduld added a second and Cecil Afrika and Jamba Ulengo all added their names to the scoresheet.

Spain’s only try was scored by Francisco Hernandez.

The Blitzbokke’s big test will come against rivals England at 11:00.

The winner will take the pool honours and be seeded for day two’s Cup quarterfinals.

England beat Spain 54-7 but struggled against France, winning 26-12 in a match that could have gone either way.

The other big guns all were unhindered in their progress as HSBC World Series champs New Zealand gave South African-born coach Matt Hawkins and his USA team a rough start with a 38-0 whitewash, before beating Tonga 26-0 in their second game.

Fiji, under new coach Ben Ryan, struggled to beat Canada 20-10 while Samoa looked impressive in their 26-7 win over Argentina.

Kenya swatted USA aside 31-5 after beating Tonga 38-0 to set up a mouthwatering clash with the Kiwis.