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Boks finish off Aussies
30/03/2008 10:58 - (SA)
Johannesburg - South Africa were once again their own worst enemies when they deservedly beat Australia 19-14 in the quarter-final of the Hong Kong leg of the IRB World Sevens Series on Sunday.
Playing some scintillating rugby in the first four minutes or so, the initially impressive Springboks ran up a 14-0 lead through tries by captain Neil Powell and hard-working Frankie Horn, and seemed to be cruising to a win. It should have been 21-0 when the referee unbelievably decided to call the Boks back for what he deemed a forward pass.
Then a lapsed tackle or two saw them go into the break at only 14-7 ahead. Australia took control after the break when the Boks conceded two scrum penalties, and scored to make it 14-all with more errors and wrong options costing the Springboks.
Tight match
Then what seemed a perfectly good try by Fabian Juries was turned down by the touch-in-goal official, but from the 22 restart Renfred Dazel ran in, only just to miss the relatively easy conversion. It was still game on.
However, with time running out it was enough and the Boks will now play Samoa in the semi-final, with the two old foes, New Zealand and Fiji, again contesting the other semi.
Samoa battled past England 17-12 in another tight match on a day of close results when they reversed the result of the two sides in the pool round on Saturday.
New Zealand now have 40 successive wins in the World Series and are still on course for their seventh tournament win in a row. But it nearly wasn't their day. What is becoming increasingly noticeable, is the narrowing of the gap between the traditional Sevens powers and countries like Kenya and Wales who took New Zealand to the wire in their quarter-final - notwithstanding the scoreline of 26-7 to the Kiwis, who only clinched the match right at the end with two tries to make the victory seem more impressive than it was.
Kenya, but for a pass or two that went awry, seemed to have Fiji on the rack, but lost 10-0 in a match the Islanders will be relieved to have won.
And once again it is interesting to note how world powers in the fifteen-man game use the Sevens as a basis for their Test sides.
Argentina, for example, had 16 former national Sevens players in the side that finished third in the recent World Cup.
Results Day 3: Bowl; Quarter-final: Zimbabwe 26 Chinese Tapei 7, Hong Kong 19 Japan 14, Korea 12 China 5, Russia 35 Sri Lanka 10 Quarter-final Plate: Argentina 7 Scotland 5, Tonga 26 Portugal 17, France 12 Tunisia 7, Canada 24 USA 21 Quarter-final Cup: New Zealand 26 Wales 7, Fiji 10 Kenya 0, South Africa 19 Australia 14, Samoa 17 England 12.
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