Cape Town - Kyle Brown and Ryan Kankowski made serious statements of intent as the Springbok Sevens cruised to a 21-7 win over Canada in their London Sevens opener at Twickenham on Saturday.
Former No 8 Kankowski scored a brace, but more importantly, proved that he still has some of the speed that made him a Super Rugby star at the Sharks and earned him 20 Springbok Test caps.
After rounding off easily following a brilliant offload in the tackle by Brown after just two minutes, Kankowski surged down the right flank in a style reminiscent of his glory days at the Sharks to score his second of the match.
It was again set up by Brown, who won an outstanding turnover on the ground. The regular Blitzboks captain has been replaced by Philip Snyman for the last two tournaments of the season in Paris and London, but if there were any doubts about his ability as a player, those were quickly dispelled as he played like a man possessed.
Brown was his usual busy self in defence, and the manner in which he rode the tackle and passed to Kankowski for the first try would’ve made Sonny Bill Williams proud, even though it wasn’t a back-of-the-hand offload.
Blitzbok coach Neil Powell kept speedsters such as Seabelo Senatla, Rosko Specman and Francois Hougaard on the bench, with Senatla not even coming on at all to preserve him for tougher Pool A games against USA and Samoa later on Saturday.
Hougaard finished off things in style when he darted over from a ruck after a strong run by Dylan Sage, who also had an industrious outing.
Canadian captain John Moonlight grabbed a consolation try with the last move of the game.
The Blitzboks’ next game is against USA (2.42pm), the defending London Sevens champions who caused an upset earlier on Saturday as they beat last week’s Paris Sevens winners Samoa 12-5.
POINTS-SCORERS
South Africa – Tries: Ryan Kankowski (2), Francois Hougaard. Conversions: Cecil Afrika (3).
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