Davids inspires Blitzboks comeback

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The Springbok Sevens team defeated Scotland 27-7 on Friday in their first game of the inaugural Spain Sevens tournament.

Understandably, after the lengthy break in the series, the Blitzboks were a bit rusty in their first game and started slowly as a result.

They were put under pressure from the get-go by Scotland, who were playing as an individual country for the first time this season, having joined England and Wales as Great Britain during the first two tournaments.

The Scots created several opportunities and finally made a breakthrough when the Blitzboks lost JC Pretorius to a yellow card for not rolling away after making a try-saving tackle on the line.

Trailing by seven points at the break, the Blitzboks came out firing in the second half.

Two tries by Zain and Selvyn Davids in the space of the first two minutes in the second half to take a 10-7 lead.

Playing with an energy that had been sorely lacking in the first half, the Blitzboks started to dominated the breakdown. Two penalties won on the ground saw Selwyn flummox the Scottish defence with a perfectly-executed chip and chase to score his second, before captain Siviwe Soyizwapi scuttled over for his team’s fourth try.

The match was effectively over as a contest but South Africa added a fifth try when Christie Grobbelaar burst through an attempted tackle to round off the scoring.

Victory not withstanding, the Blitzboks’ goal-kicking and defence were not great and they will be eager to improve those aspects of their game before tomorrow’s all-important match against England.

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