The Springbok Sevens team caused a bit of an upset by denying England a successful title defense at the England Sevens.
The BlitzBokke beat England by 17-12, thanks to a two-try blitz in the first half thanks to MJ Mentz and Rayno Benjamin. England skipper Ben Gollings was sin-binned halfway through the first half for a deliberate knock-down of the ball. South Africa sealed a comfortable lead when Cecil Afrika scored after the half-time siren had gone, leading led by 17-0.
England came back strongly in the second half with the 2 Toms, Varndell and Powell both crossing the South Africa whitewash. The mercurial Ben Gollings converted but it would be the only scores in the match for the defending champions, this despite South Africa losing Neil Powell and Mzwandile Stick who were both yellow carded with 1:44 and 0:55 seconds to go respectively.
The Springboks held on with the score at 17-12 to deny England in the Cup competition. After the match, a visibly upset England coach Ben Ryan stopped short of blaming poor decision-making by the referee for his side’s loss, but called the South Africans’ tries “soft.”
In the next game, Samoa continued their march to a possible Series title when they beat New Zealand 19-10.
Samoa beat Gordon Tietjens’ New Zealand 19-10 (Picture Getty Images)
The Cup Semi-finals of the England Sevens are as follows:
South Africa vs. Somoa
Argentina vs. Australia
24/05/2010 at 12:11 AM
Just in:
South beat Series log-leaders Samoa (24-12) to book their place against Australia in the Cup Final of the England Sevens.