South Africa capped off a wonderful string of performances to clinch the Las Vegas Sevens Cup final over their arch rivals New Zealand by a converted try.
Their performance was crisp, consistent and clinical in every facet of play.
The final was a scintillating affair that kept most of the fans of their feet all game, and what an encounter it was: complete with fierce tackling and counter-rucking, several try savings tackles and sublime ball skills all around.
The win put South Africa on top of the HSBC Sevens World Series standings, deservedly so, which begs the question do Neil Powell’s men have what it takes to win the series? I think they do.
Neil Powell is blessed with an abundance of talent, and he has three devastating playmakers in Cecil Afrika, Branco Du Preez and Justin Geduld.
Each one of those players could be a primary playmaker on any squad in the world, and they work selflessly together to create the kind of mis-matches that see them easily run 30-40 points on most teams.
They have so much speed with Seabelo Senatla, Afrika and the power up front in Horne, Dry and Snyman.
There scoring power so impressive and they are growing in confidence having played in the last three finals and barely lost the one.
While the offensive excellence is a marvel to behold, their defence is just as good, if not better.
The Bokke concede only 14 points all weekend, which is remarkable considering how easy it is to leak a try at this level.
They adjusted splendidly to the way the referees were calling the breakdown. The tacklers fought valiantly for the ball (albeit in a ruck situation).
Small lapses in concentration result in points more often than not.
It just hasn’t been the case with these Bokke.
They only conceded one seven pointer in the pool games to a plucky Kenya side that was trying to make up for their poor start.
They went on to blank Argentina in the quarters and Samoa in their Cup semi (both teams played very well all weekend) and give up one try in the final.
When you add the 14 points conceded this weekend to the 28 conceded in Port Elizabeth it shows how well Powell’s boys have gelled under his regime.
While fans will point out that Cama and Stowers were missing, two of NZ’s most potent weapons.
However I will say that Kaka and Naholo filled in for them very nicely, and while missing Cama drops the All Blacks creative edge quite a bit, I don’t believe that both of them would have been enough to overturn a splendid South African side.
More to come in New Zealand in two weeks, when they get a chance to prove themselves worthy. I’m sure Tietjens and everyone else will be watching them very carefully on day one.
atlas
Guest
IRB pool draw for round 6 of the HSBC Sevens World Series, the Tokyo Sevens on 22-23 March 2014. Pool A: NZ, Canada, Wales, Portugal Pool B: SA, Argentina, Kenya, Japan Pool C: Fiji, Samoa, France, USA Pool D: England, Australia, Scotland, Spain
atlas
Guest
If that was a record 'least points conceded in a single tournament' - then it has been beaten in Wellington - NZ scored 185 points, conceded just 12 (two tries, conv v Fiji) in first match - kept every other team 'nil'
atlas
Guest
Wellington Sevens Results Semifinals: England 0 v NZ 31; South Africa 10 v Fiji 0 Final: NZ 21 - South Africa 0 3rd-4th playoff Fiji 14 - England 7 Australia beat Canada 12-10 to win the Plate final NZ regains the competition lead from SA, the win puts them on 99 pts, SA 97, Fiji 73, England 68, Australia 59
atlas
Guest
Wellington Sevens quarterfinal results - and England still on target to repeat last year's Wellington win England 21 v Samoa 5 NZ 24 v Canada 0 South Africa 10 v Australia 0 Fiji 29 v Argentina 7 Semifinals England v NZ South Africa v Fiji Australia play Argentina in the Plate semifinal
atlas
Guest
Sevens in Wellington this weekend Competition leaders SA lost 5-19 to England (who won the Wellington round last year), and 2nd-paced NZ lost 5-12 to Fiji, SA/Eng/Fiji have qualified for the final eight along with Australia, Argentina, Canada, Samoa. NZ's future depends on the last match of the day, v France (on now, NZ lead 19-0 at halftime) Quarterfinals tomorrow England v Samoa Canada v (NZ or France) Australia v South Africa Fiji v Argentina
Chivas
Guest
Excellent write up. Thanks. What bearing does this have and what can we glean on how things will play out in the HK and Dubai 7's or over the entire championship?
Rugger
Guest
Good for SA...I thought they were the better team with x-factor and speed. What about Australia team. For the life of me I cannot figure out why we do not lure cross-code athletes or some youngster who have flair and speed. Most of the aussie players seem to be on treadmills. What is the matter for a nation with 20m population we do not have enough fast men or is M. O'Connor not picking best players. We run the risk of not qualify for RIO if we take this mob who cannot run, side-step and play like the just want to run into players instead of running into space.
Yes mate, it is the least points conceded in a single tournament.
Kibz
Guest
Sam Boyd is an American Football field, hence the narrow field. When they first used the field, several players got badly injured on the sidewalls because the stretched the field a little too close to the boundaries. The sport is growing in the US, and the regional sevens tournaments are hoping to start pulling crowds in the low thousands.
Kibz
Guest
Thanks Biltongbek, and they punch well above their weight.
Kuruki
Roar Guru
Well Done South Africa. Pity Tomasi Cama will be back next time to rain on your parade.
Working Class Rugger
Roar Guru
Sam Boyd is predominantly used for American Football. It's slightly widened for the event but it's still comfortably narrower. It was another successful event with a modest increase in crowd attendance (2%) which caught the organisers by surprise as due to the conflicting schedule this year as opposed to last year, they were actually expecting a decline. The big improvement was in the TV viewing department. They got a 1.0 share on Sunday (a 35% jump on last year) and a 0.72 on Saturday which was a similar increase to Sunday. For those wondering a 1.0 share equates roughly to 1.158 million households.
Chan Wee
Guest
@ atlas : do they play on a NFL field in Vegas ? as for the results - "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" :P :D
DCNZ
Guest
South Africa were too good for the Kiwis who did not look as fit and fresh as the Bokke - congrats to them. Plus the S Africa seemed to win the turnover ball better and gee they are using the ball well at the moment. Good challenge for the Kiwis this season!
GeoffBrisbane
Guest
Well deserved win now can they maintain momentum only time will tell.
Machpants
Guest
The Blitz Bokke were awesome, what defence TWO TRIES? Is that a record? Gotta be close for any team that made the knock out phases let alone the final. Welly should be cracking, hopefully NZ will have the injured trio of Cama, Stowers and Webber (tho I have no idea if they will). For sure the exciting Akira Ioane won't need his passport or visa or whatever it was that stopped him going to Vegas!
atlas
Guest
I'm sure you intended to say counter attack! Where's the auto-censor!!!
Tigranes
Guest
Thats an amazing result by Canada, Samoa are not slouches by any measure, and the game really has to battle against the odds in Canada.
Not sure that is true. Due to the narrowness of the pitch (about 10 meters narrower than usual) the bigger teams have an advantage with their power runners, wheras SA rely on pace to get around the opposition defence. It could be argued that they benefitted from well structured defence and there were numerous examples of desperate cover defence that saved tries. One standout statistic was their positive turn over rate, in the six matches they had 21 positive turn overs, NZ was second on about about 15 and the rest of the teams barely managed to score positive returns. It was that turnover and cunter attack that caused them to have success this past weekend, it bears out also when you look at the number of tries they scored (the most in the tournament)
atlas
Guest
And how about a mention for the Canada sevens team - third overall at Las Vegas (beat Samoa 22-19 in 3rd/4th match). other results: England beat Australia 26-24 in the consolation Plate final to place fifth Fiji finished ninth beating Kenya 35-0 in the Bowl final USA beat Spain 31-0 to win the Shield and finish 13th. South Africa's victory gives them a one point series lead ahead of the Wellington round which starts on February 7 SA 78, NZ 77, Fiji 56, Eng 53, Samoa 47, Aust 46, Arg 43, Kenya 39, France 33, Wales 32. TV channels NBC, NBCSN and Universal Sports.showed 15 hours of tournament action - live coverage of full matches, as well as highlights from the three-day event.