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Blitzboks open with gutsy win over New Zealand

football21 February 2025 20:48
By:Brenden Nel
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The Springbok Sevens side opened their Vancouver Sevens campaign with a stunning, narrow 12-10 win over arch rivals New Zealand on Friday night.

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 late try gave New Zealand hope and when Oli Mathis took the restart with a one-handed leap, it seemed the Blitzboks would be on the back foot for the final seconds.

But some swift work by former captain Shakes Soyizwapi in cutting down Mathis, then pouncing for a crucial turnover penalty, sealed the game for the Blitzboks.

In the end Tristan Leyds could just punt the ball out for the win, which came at a high cost as it seems that the Blitzboks lost veteran Ryan Oosthuizen in the process to injury.

Oosthuizen didn’t look good as he departed the field and coach Philip Snyman will need to do some calculated selections without his first choice forward.

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.

They now face Ireland at 3:29am (CAT, GMT+2) before waiting until Saturday night at 9:36pm to play their final pool fixture against Australia.

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