Blitzboks ease into Commonwealth Games quarterfinals

The Blitzboks eased into the Commonwealth Games quarterfinals after picking up a comfortable 36-5 pool win over Tonga in Birmingham, England on Friday night.

It was the Blitzboks second pool win in a row after they beat Malaysia 46-0 in their competition opener earlier on Friday, which means that they will battle it out with Scotland to see who will finish on top of the pool on Saturday afternoon.

If the Blitzboks beat Scotland, as they will be expected to do in their final pool match, they will most likely come up against Canada in the quarterfinals on Saturday night.

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In the Tonga match the Blitzboks got off to a flying start as they scored within the first 30 seconds after a kick ahead saw captain Siviwe Soyizwapi pick up and score in the left hand corner.

Tonga then enjoyed a good spell of play to keep the Blitzboks at bay, but the pressure eventually told as Chirstie Grobbelaar burst through the defence and scored under the poles, with Ronald Brown’s conversion putting them 12-0 up.

Straight from the restart the Blitzboks then got the ball back, went through a few phases, before Grobbelaar went in for his second in the right hand corner.

However Tonga showed good fight to run in their own try after the halftime hooter, as Samisoni Asi powered over to make it 17-5 at the break.

 The Blitzboks got the second half off to a fast start again, this time with JC Pretorius dotting down after a kick and chase from Selvyn Davids.

Sako Makata then came off the bench to hit a gap and score under the poles, with the conversion putting the Blitzboks 29-5 up with four minutes to play.

It was then an ugly end to the match as Blitzboks replacement Mfundo Ndlovu had to be stretchered off the field after a high hit from John Ika connected with his jaw.

Ika was red carded for his effort and Ndlovu is unlikely to feature again in the tournament due to concussion protocols.

The Blitzboks then finished the game with a flourish as the man advantage saw Dewald Human on the overlap and under the poles to seal the win.

Pool fixture

Saturday

Blitzboks v Scotland (1:18pm)

South African Women

The SA women’s side struggled on the first day of the competition, and were swiftly knocked out of the running for the quarterfinals by two heavy defeats against Sevens women’s heavyweights Australia and Fiji.

The opened with a 38-0 loss against current Sevens World Series leaders Australia in the morning, before going down 41-0 against third ranked Fiji in the evening session.

The SA women will be disappointed to not have registered a try yet after two games and will hope to end their pool phase on top with a win over Scotland on Saturday morning.

Pool fixture

Saturday

SA v Scotland (10am)