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South Africa’s Blitzboks Book Dubai Sevens Final Spot

South Africa’s Blitzboks are one match away from defending their Dubai Sevens title and will meet New Zealand in the final on Saturday evening. The South Africans, World Series champions, beat arch rivals Fiji 12-7 in the semi-final. After a scrappy opening to their tournament when they looked ring-rusty in beating Uganda, Neil Powell’s men […]

South Africa’s Blitzboks are one match away from defending their Dubai Sevens title and will meet New Zealand in the final on Saturday evening.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Saturday 2 December 2017, Cecil Afrika of South Africa on the attack during the HSBC Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens cup quarter final match between South Africa and Samoa at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai. Photo by Roger Sedres/ImageSA

The South Africans, World Series champions, beat arch rivals Fiji 12-7 in the semi-final.

After a scrappy opening to their tournament when they looked ring-rusty in beating Uganda, Neil Powell’s men have come on in leaps and bounds, and showed why they’re global champions.

This photo and the photo below: Twitter/Springbok Sevens

First try went to Cecil Afrika with just after a minute gone after some great work by Seabelo Senatla and Kwagga Smith who kept the Fijian defence at full stretch. Afrika was left to pick up from a ruck and launch himself over the chalk.

Then, with 90sec left on the clock it was Senatla himself who, against the run of play, picked up a loose ball as the Fijians pressed and ran fully 50m to score under the posts for a seven-pointer.

They held that lead into the break and it was less than a minute into the second half that Fiji hit back, when, after a sustained period of pressure an overlap opened up in centre field and left Jerry Tuwai with an easy score.

But try as they might, the Pacific Islanders couldn’t crack a resolute performance by the Blitzboks.

Earlier, Senatla also showed his immense all-round value to the team after he hauled in a runaway Fijian attack by Tuwai down the right flank to force him into touch when it seemed for all money the Fijians would score.

Tuwai had to endure a huge hit from Werner Kok as he stepped into touch, to rub further salt into Fijian wounds.

In the second semi-final, New Zealand downed England 14-5 after going down to an early try.

The final is scheduled for 5.33pm SA time later on South Africa where the Blitzboks will look to stamp an early mark on the 2017/18 season.

Source: TeamSA.co.za

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