Blitzbokke start off well in Wellington
by Brenden Nel 03 February 2012, 06:47
The Springbok Sevens side opened their Wellington Sevens campaign in style, romping home against the USA and Cook Islands without conceding a point in their first two games.
Paul Treu’s charges went in with confidence in their opening match against the Americans, winning 21-0 before following it up with a powerhouse 43-0 victory over the Cook Islands.
The American match had been a tricky one as they had employed the French 15s defence coach in their bid to outwit the Blitzbok attack.
But it wasn’t enough to stop playmaker Cecil Afrika, who scored a brace and had Steven Hunt join him on the scoresheet as the South Africans started strongly.
In the match against the Cook Islands, Afrika again played his normal starring role, and moved past 650 points in World Series with a try and three conversions as the Blitzbokke dominated the one-sided contest.
Speedster Cornal Hendriks dotted down twice, while Hunt, Paul Delport, Boom Prinsloo and Frankie Horne all scored in the seven-try romp.
While the Blitzbokke looked sharp and focused, Tonga caused the major stir on day one by downing fellow South Sea Islanders Fiji 17-14 in an enthralling match.
Earlier the Tongans had held Wales to a 14-all draw and if they win their last pool match against Argentina, then they will qualify for their first quarterfinal in ages.
Daniel Kilioni scored their winning try against Fiji with a minute to go to give the small island nation a famous victory.
In other shocks in early play, Kenya beat Australia 35-10 and France were beaten by a spirited Canada side 19-14.