CAPE TOWN – After beating Zimbabwe 31-0 in their opening match of the 2018/19 World Sevens Series, the Blitzboks had to work harder against Samoa to make it two-out-of-two on Day One of the Series-opener in Dubai.
In the first half the Blitzboks had most of the possession, but they struggled to find the last pair of hands a number of times, until Justin Geduld sent a pin-point kick-pass into in-goal for Siviwe Soyizwapi to pounce on and score the opening try (7-0).
Some poor defending in midfield by the Springbok Sevens allowed Johnny Vaili to step past them twice, before shifting his focus to the tryline to level the scores (7-7).
After going into the break 7-all, the Blitzboks struck first in the second half when Rosko Specman continued his high-impact displays off the bench to allow Werner Kok the chance to shrug off three defenders and find the chalk that matters (14-7).
Following a knock picked up against @manusamoa, Justin Geduld will not take part in the remainder of the @Dubai7s and will be replaced by Selvyn Davids. pic.twitter.com/x8WdbyyccG
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) November 30, 2018
An intercept by Alatasi Tupou - which snatched away a possible try from the Blitzboks - saw him sprint down touch, all the way out of own 22, to take the score to 14-12.
With less than a minute to go, Muller du Plessis finished off in the left-hand corner to take the final score to 19-12.
The Blitzboks will face Argentina in their last game on Day One at 17:33 SA time on Friday.
Score:
South Africa 19 - 12 Samoa
Try scorers:
Blitzboks: Siviwe Soyizwapi, Werner Kok, Muller du Plessis
Samoa: Johnny Vaili, Alatasi Tupou