The Blitzboks bounced back from their early unexpected loss to Great Britain by convincingly putting away their African rivals Kenya 27-12 in their second pool game in the Emirates Dubai Sevens on Friday.
The Blitzboks were outplayed 14-5 in the first game they played in a tournament where they are aiming for a record fourth successive title, but they recovered from that disappointment in fine style.
They quickly got into the business by putting the flying JC Pretorius in after just two minutes and their intensity was rewarded again a minute later as Ryan Oosthuizen dotted down. They weren’t able to convert either kick, but the margin became 15 points when Impi Visser scored his try on the halftime hooter.
The one and only conversion slotted by the South Africans came when Dewald Human converted his own try a minute after the break. With the score 22-0, the tournament defending champions were going to be hard to beat, but Kenya weren’t giving up. Anthony Omondi barged over in the right corner for his team’s first try, while Denis Abakuse crossed off a great all-encompassing attacking sweep off the last move of the game.
In between that Riccardo Duartee crossed for his first try in his career with the Blitzboks, an event that precipitated the kind of reaction you might have expected if they had just won the World Cup, with all the squad members mobbing the player and congratulating him in an outburst that underlined the spirit that exists within the national Sevens camp.
DISAPPOINTING START
The Blitzboks have won this tournament nine times and they are going for what would be an unprecedented fourth successive trophy, but their chances of doing that were hit by a sloppy performance in their first game.
The supremely motivated GB combination did make it hard, with their incisive attacking that gave them a 14-5 halftime lead that was also the end score, being supplemented by their excellent defence when the Blitzboks were chasing the game in the second half.
All the scoring came before halftime, with the Blitzboks starting confidently enough but then surrendering possession. A penalty near the Blitzbok line was quickly seized on by Freddie Roddick, who took a quick tap and ran over untouched as the Blitzboks turned in rather lazy fashion.
The conversion that made it 7-0 became significant when JC Pretorius increased his burgeoning reputation by squeezing through close to the touchline to score what proved to be the Blitzboks' only try shortly before halftime. The missed conversion meant it was still a two-point game and that became significant when GB ran the length of the field with a superb hand-to-hand movement off the last move of the half to make it a nine-point game at the break.
And that was the way it stayed as the Blitzboks saw a 19-game winning streak in Dubai come to a disappointing end.