Blitzboks smash Ireland to stay unbeaten

The Springbok Sevens side made it two from two as they powered home 28-7 against Ireland in their second match at the Vancouver Sevens.

It took just 15 seconds to get onto the scoreboard in the second match, as Tristan Leyds retrieved the kick-off, ran diagonally and then put playmaker and captain Selvyn Davids away on the switch to open the scoring.

A perfect turnover penalty by Ronald Brown led to the second try, with the Blitzboks spreading the tap and go before Davids stretched the defence and gave the switch pass to Shakes Soyizwapi, who broke the tackle to run through and score.

Josh Kenny pulled one back for Ireland, using the overlap to beat Davids’ cover tackle, but it wasn’t to be the recovery Ireland wanted.

Tries by Ricardo Duartee and Sebastian Jobb, who celebrated his return by finishing off a move after the hooter, put the Blitzboks into the quarterfinals.

Earlier, they opened their Vancouver Sevens campaign with a stunning, narrow 12-10 win over arch-rivals New Zealand.

The @Blitzboks open their #HSBCSVNSVAN account with a two-point win over the All Blacks Sevens 🇿🇦🔥#HSBCSVNS pic.twitter.com/Y9k0u3NVuO

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) February 21, 2025

The Blitzboks were made to work hard for their victory and relied on their defence to pull through a tight match where they didn’t have too much of the ball.

A crucial turnover by Soyizwapi, when New Zealand were on attack, allowed the Blitzboks to hold out for the win.

Earlier in the game, a first break by Selvyn Davids opened up enough space for Quewin Nortje to run in untouched on the wing.

But that try was quickly negated by a powerful run by Tone Ng Shiu, who was prominent in the build-up and took the last ball to get the scores level.

It was Ronald Brown who ghosted into the backline to score the Blitzboks’ second as they used a one-man advantage to press home their claim.

Andrew Knewstubb, who received the said yellow, returned later in the game to score a counter-attack try and give the Kiwis hope, but the Blitzboks were too streetsmart in the end.

The Blitzboks now have to face Australia on Saturday night at 9.36pm to complete their pool fixtures before the cup quarterfinals await in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Australia beat Ireland 17-7 in their opener, but lost to New Zealand 17-7 in their second game of the tournament.

Kenya’s tournament has been disappointing thus far, losing 24-0 to Argentina and then 33-7 to France in their two games of the tournament.