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Bok Sevens through to quarters
05/04/2008 10:40 - (SA)
Johannesburg - South Africa on Saturday won their pool in the sixth leg of the IRB World Sevens Series in Adelaide and will play Kenya in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
The Springboks beat Australia 19-7 after some outstanding defence had given the hosts very little chance to get any continuity going in the day's final match.
By winning their pool, South Africa avoided a clash with Fiji in the quarters and also New Zealand in the semi-finals, and will probably meet Samoa if they get past Kenya.
South Africa started their pool decider against Australia at high speed and young Robert Ebersohn put the Boks up after just 90 seconds. With the Boks maintaining their territorial advantage, Renfred Dazel outran the defence after going around his man and converted his own try with a minute in the first remaining.
Terrific Springbok defence prevented Australia from any continuity in the first half and South Africa went into the break 12-0 up.
Australia kept the ball through a number of phases and the Boks' defence eventually wilted when Shawn MacKay with 100 seconds remaining. It was game on, but Schalk van der Merwe, in his 25th tournament, went over for the clincher from an Aussie mistake for the Boks to run out 19-7 winners.
Two of the big surprises of the day were the qualification for the quarters by the Cook Islands in their greatest achievement yet at this level, and the demise of England who lost all three their pool matches.
Kenya also continued their improved form in this year's series to again qualify for the quarter-finals.
Of the upsets and near-upsets the 40-21 win of the Cook Islands over Argentina was the one that carried the most weight as it saw them advance to the play-offs.
Earlier Fiji had come from behind against a motivated Kenya in a play-off to determine Pool D's winner to run out deserved 29-14 winners.
This gave them a quarter-final spot where they they'll now Australia.
Canada took South Africa to the wire in their second-round match that the Springboks somewhat fortuitously won 21-17 to advance to the quarter-finals. The Springboks hardly saw a ball in the first five minutes of the match against Canada and missed five tackles against their bigger opponents in the first four minutes to help Canada to a 12-0 lead.
It was catch-up from then on for the Boks with three conversions to Canada's one seeing the Boks make sure of that quarter-final berth. South Africa earlier comfortably won their first pool match when they defeated the USA Eagles 43-0.
Fiji first accounted for England (31-12) before Kenya, with a smothering defence, were good value for their 17-10 win over England in the second round to ensure they will be one of the two top sides in Pool D after their win over France (21-12) in the first round. France also beat England (19-12) to decide Pool D's wooden spoonists.
The Cook Islands came close to surprising Scotland when they led 17-0, but the more experienced Scots kept their cool to run out 22-17 winners. The Cook Islands then lost 33-7 to New Zealand before the came from behind to outplay Argentina 40-21 in what must be the Cook Islands' greatest victory yet in their limited IRB Sevens appearances.
They qualified for the quarter-finals by virtue of a count-out over Scotland after the latter had lost 38-10 to New Zealand.
In their first match, Argentina ran an idling New Zealand close, 21-14, although the Kiwis always seemed to have the game under control. When the Kiwis accounted for Scotland 38-10 in the third round they had stretched their unbeaten run to 45 matches.
Samoa edged Tonga 14-12 to ensure that the losers will face the All Blacks in the quarters while they themselves will play the Cook Islands.
The quarter-final fixtures for Sunday are: New Zealand v Tonga, Samoa v Cook Islands, South Africa v Kenya, Fiji v Australia
- Sapa
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