Blitzbokke took the field in their first game of their Wellington Sevens series and absolutely Blitzed the Welsh teams. The game was barely 20 seconds old and they’d crossed the line in the first of their unanswered 24 point shut out.
South Africa have always been one of the form teams in the Sevens series, and always a team to watch. Last Word on Sport was very fortunate to speak with South African captain Kyle Brown about the game. Looking at their first win I asked Brown about how he felt “Yeah we made a couple of mistakes going into that game, and I think we kept in nicely. A couple of handling errors and a little bit of discipline at the break down. It’s always a tough game against Wales, and it not the same as it was in Las Vegas, we knew we were going to have to work for this one.”
Looking at the big series wins South Africa have had in Las Vegas, and in South Africa, I asked Kyle whether he felt it fair to label the Bok boys as favourites for this series “It would be difficult to say that in New Zealand, especially with New Zealand being so close to us [in the table] you’d have to give them the favourite tag for this [series].”
“We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing, focusing on the next game. Our next one is against Portugal, we know it’s going to be a big one. They’ve got a couple of physical guys and we know we’re going to have to front up against them.”
Favourite or not, this South African team is certainly a dominant force in the series. With such a depth of talent, and such a willingness to move the ball, get involved and grind out a win, it’s going to be hard to bet against this team.
Portugal have just finished their game against England, falling 34 – 7 to a brutal English offence, so this will only serve to incense them. The South Africa v Portugal game therefore promises to be hard, and punishing. Make no mistake, this series has only just begun, and it is going to get huge from here.
My thanks to Kyle Brown for taking the time to chat with me, and all the best for the series.
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Photo Credit: Kyle Willoughby
