Siviwe Soyizwapi starred as the Blitzboks beat Japan 52-0 and France 10-7 at the Singapore Sevens on Saturday.
South Africa were clinical from start to finish in their eight-try demolition of Japan and coach Neil Powell should be particularly pleased with the performances of youngsters Zain Davids, Stedman Gans and Sandile Ngcobo.
With his first touch of the ball, Werner Kok beat a defender on the outside to score the opening try. From the restart, Kok beat the ruck to make a turnover and the ball was fed to Dylan Sage, who bumped off two tacklers before spreading it wide to Soyizwapi for an easy run-in.
The speedster then scored his second of the match on the stroke of half-time for a 21-0 advantage.
The Blitzboks continued in the same vein after the break, with Kok and Sage scoring in quick succession before Soyizwapi completed his hat-trick for a 40-point lead. But David’s try in the last minute prompted the biggest celebration from the team. He bust through a double tackle and then raced clear to score his first-ever try on the sevens circuit.
There was still time for a kick-off and with time up on the clock, the Blitzboks kept the ball alive and Ngcobo dotted down to complete a comfortable win.
Soyizwapi then bagged a double to guide the Blitzboks to a 10-7 victory over France .
In a tight contest, Soyizwapi scored in the corner to give South Africa a 5-0 lead at half-time and he doubled the score after the break with his second try of the match and fifth of the day. But Branco du Preez’s failure to add the conversion set up a grandstand finish.
Soyizwapi was yellow-carded for a high tackle and France pounced to score a converted try. With a three-point deficit France went in surge of a win in the dying seconds. They kicked the ball in behind the Blitzboks defence but fortunately for South Africa, Dylan Sage won the footrace to secure possession and effectively end the match.
Blitzboks’ remaining fixtures (Day 1):
vs England (13:02 SA time)
Singapore Sevens fixtures and results
Photo: Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images
