Cama sinks Blitzbokke
by Brenden Nel 03 April 2011, 11:45
A match-winning performance by Thomasi Cama was enough to down South Africa’s brave effort to win the Adelaide Sevens on Sunday, giving New Zealand a 28-20 victory in the final and placing one hand on the HSBC World Sevens trophy.
The Blitzbokke, outsized and outclassed in physicality, battled hard against their bigger counterparts, and even stole the lead early in the second half, leading 20-14 with five minutes to go, but couldn’t cope with Cama’s brilliance as he saw his team home.
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In the end, while a few 50-50 decisions seemed to go against the Bokke, they will kick themselves as Cama converted all four of his side’s tries while Cecil Afrika’s boot was wayward, and not one kick from the South Africans went over.
It ended a great performance this weekend by the Blitzbokke, who shocked Fiji in the quarterfinals, then whitewashed England on their way to the final.
New Zealand were on the scoreboard early as Lote Raikabula exploited an injury to Bok captain Kyle Brown, down in backplay, to use the extra man and run in the opening try.
Chris Dry pulled one back for the Boks, again spotting a gap and powering his way through it to score.
With the Bok defence stretched, Cama spotted a gap and put on the burners, easily beating Branco du Preez on the outside to put his side 14-5 up.
But the Boks weren’t finished that easy, and importantly, a Cecil Afrika break just on the stroke of halftime spilled the ball on the Kiwi line, and Du Preez swooped in to dive over and score.
Behind by four at the break, Paul Treu’s charges started off fantastically after the break, as Cecil Afrika scored early in the second half.
This was followed by a Paul Delport-inspired try to put them 20-14 up.
But as in the first half, the elusiveness of the Fijian born and raised Cama, whose father Thomas was a Fijian Sevens legend, was too much for the Boks to handle.
First he flummoxed the Boks' defence by first retreating, then turning, and finding way to much space, sent Frank Halai over to score. The conversion put New Zealand into the lead by a solitary point.
Then a bit of bad luck put paid to the Boks' chances as New Zealand got away with a skew lineout throw, and when the Boks ripped the ball off them, Delport’s long pass across field was adjudged forward.
From the scrum, Cama danced his way past two defenders to put the game beyond doubt, and break the South African hearts.
South Africa now lie fourth in the HSBC Sevens World Series standings, just ahead of Fiji, and behind leaders New Zealand, England and Samoa.