DUBAI SEVENS: BlitzBoks stutter past Uganda
The South Africans, who are the defending World Sevens Series champions, will face Canada and Kenya in their next two matches on Friday.
There were also wins for some of the other big teams in Round One.
Round One wrap:
Pool A:
(South Africa, Canada, Kenya, Uganda)
Uganda made life difficult for the BlitzBoks in the first-half of their opening game, but tries from Ruhan Nel, Philip Snyman ensured the South Africans had a 14-0 lead at the break.
Uganda continued to make things hard for the champs after they opened the scoring with a try in the second half. But the Boks hit back almost immediately with a try from Tim Agaba.
Uganda never gave up and they were the last to score at the death before going down 10-19.
Kenya and Canada kicked things off in Pool A in an intriguing encounter.
After Canada took an early lead, Kenya ran in three unanswered tries in the rest of the first half to go into the break leading 19-5.
There was no way back in the second half for Canada with Kenya scoring another two tries. However, the Canadians did show promising signs in the second half.
Results:
South Africa 19-10 Uganda
Canada 15-29 Kenya
Pool B:
(England, Scotland, France, Spain)
England looked rusty in the opening minutes of their game against Spain, but they eventually found their rhythm to score two tries and lead 14-0 at the break.
England managed to score another two tries against the feisty Spanish in the second half for a 28-0 win.
The match between Scotland and France was a real arm-wrestle.
It was only a two-point game at the break with France leading 14-12 after both sides scored two tries.
Both teams could not find a way over the tryline in the first six minutes of the second half before Scotland finished the game with two tries to win 24-14.
Results:
England 28-0 Spain
Scotland 24-14 France
Pool C:
(Fiji, Australia, Wales, Russia)
There were two big wins in the opening two matches in Pool C on Friday.
Australia kicked things off in the pool with a match against Wales and it was one-way traffic throughout.
Wales had no answer to the Aussies dangerous ball-runners and they were eventually smashed 7-38.
It was more of the same in the match between Fiji and Russia with the Pacific Islanders running in four tries in the first-half to lead 26-7 at the break.
Fiji ran in another four tries in the second half to eventually win 50-7.
Results:
Fiji 50-7 Russia
Australia 38-7 Wales
Pool D:
(New Zealand, United States, Argentina, Samoa)
New Zealand got their campaign underway with a tricky encounter against Samoa and they did not have it their own way.
Samoa showed their intent in the first half and they went into the break leading 12-5 after outscoring their opponents by two tries to one.
However, the Kiwis turned on the gas in the second half, running in another three tries to pull away from their Pacific neighbours.
In what was the first match of the day, Argentina upset the United States of America 22-14 in an entertaining match.
The Argentinians outscored their opponents by four tries to two, but a lack of successful conversions meant they only held a slender 17-14 lead going into the final minute of the match.
However, try from Franco Sabato in the final seconds took the game away from the USA.
Results:
USA 14-22 Argentina
New Zealand 24-12 Samoa
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