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Bok Sevens clinch title

Edinburgh - The Springbok Sevens team on Saturday sealed victory in the International Rugby Board's World Sevens Series for the 2008/09 season when they successfully progressed to Sunday’s Cup quarter-finals after beating France and the USA on the first day of the Edinburgh Sevens.

The minimum of four log points Paul Treu’s team will get from making the quarter-finals puts them out of reach of England, until yesterday the only team that could still catch the South Africans on the series table.

Convincing victories over France (33-10) and the USA (34-5) were enough for the Springbok Sevens team to clinch the title, but they never rested on their laurels, beating New Zealand 14-12 in their final game of the day.

Treu was very happy that his team could take the crown on Saturday, meaning they can now focus on winning the Edinburgh Sevens on Sunday without any added pressure.

“We approached Saturday’s first two games as a semi-final and a final. To win the IRB title is massive for us – we’ve been planning for this for a few seasons and it’s a fantastic achievement by a dedicated group of players and management. At first we had a three year plan in place to win the IRB title, to do it a year early is a huge bonus” said Treu.

“The season is not over yet – we will have the knock-out phase on Sunday – but it’s been a good series for us. We worked extremely hard at our base in Stellenbosch and the total of 17 players we used throughout the season were always switched on and focused.

“Our next aim is to finish the season on the ultimate high and win the tournament here at Murrayfield. It will truly be the cherry on the cake.”

It was evident that the Springbok Sevens team arrived at Murrayfield with purpose and they played very well in beating the French and the Americans.

The Springbok Sevens team won the first two tournaments of the season in Dubai and George in December last year. They were the beaten finalists in Hong Kong late in March and won the Adelaide leg of the series a week later.

 
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