Bok Women Sevens into Dubai playoffs

SATURDAY WRAP: South Africa and Argentina finished top of their respective pools with perfect three-from-three records on the opening day of HSBC SVNS 3 in the desert.

Three players notched up hat-tricks in the desert, but South Africa’s flyer Maria Tshiremba kicked off with four in a single match, and added one more on day one.

The Springbok Women’s Sevens are one victory away from their HSBC SVNS 3 objective at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai after winning all three of their Pool A matches on Saturday in a commanding display of attacking rugby.

By doing so, they qualified for the tournament semifinals to be played on Sunday, with a win over the Europeans securing not only a place in the finals but qualification for the HSBS SVNS 2 series to be played in the next three months.

The three wins, over Mexico (61-0), Czechia (24-5), and Thailand (33-5), came attractively, with the pace of the SA side out wide a clear advantage.

Maria Tshiremba scored four tries in the opening win over Mexico, and fellow speedsters Nadine Roos, Ayanda Malinga, and Patience Mokone also went around the defence with regular intervals.

Tshiremba laid down the marker in the opening match, dotting down three times before the halftime break and once shortly after with great use of her speed.

Mokone replaced her and dotted down twice as they romped away against a Mexican side that had no answers to the all-round attack from their opponents.

The match against Czechia started well, with Nadine Roos and Shiniqwa Lamprecht scoring good tries, but they lost focus when Asisipho Plaatjies was yellow-carded. The Eastern European side took advantage of their extra attacker and scored just before the break.

The second half remained tight, but a good effort by Tshiremba opened up the winning margin.

Against Thailand, the SA team conceded first as Laksina Nawakaew sold them a dummy to score the opening try. The response was swift, though as Leigh Fortuin scored from the restart, running all of 80 meters to dot down. Vianca Boer and Zintle Mpupha also added second-half tries as the Springbok Women’s Sevens zoomed into a third win.

*Argentina picked up where they had left off on the old HSBC Challenger Series as they eased to a 45-0 opening match win over Samoa, Marianela Escalante, Sofia Gonzalez, and Talia Rodich all scoring doubles.

Their pace got the better of power in the second game, a battle of the Pool B favourites, as they ran in four tries to Poland’s one to win 22-5.

Poland’s try was the only one Argentina conceded in the pool phase, as they rounded off their day one efforts with a hard-fought 14-0 win over Colombia.

Earlier, Natalia Pamięta had scored the first-ever HSBC SVNS 3 try and the new competition’s first-ever hat-trick as Poland eased to a confidence-boosting 31-5 win over Colombia in the game’s opening match.

In their final outing, they recovered from their second-game defeat to Argentina to give themselves a chance of reaching the all-important semi-finals with a 31-5 win over Samoa, a rerun of the scoreline from their opening round outing to finish second in Pool B.

Colombia survived a late goal-line scare to beat physical Samoa 21-14, Leidy Soto scoring two of the South Americans’ tries, while Lutia Col Aumua got the Pacific Islanders back into the reckoning with a sensational breakaway score right from a restart.

See below for Day One’s Results:

Women’s Teams

Colombia 5-41 Poland
Argentina 45-0 Samoa
Thailand 5-32 Czechia
South Africa 61-0 Mexico
Colombia 21-14 Samoa
Argentina 22-5 Poland
Thailand 45-0 Mexico
South Africa 24-5 Czechia
Poland 31-5 Samoa
Argentina 14-0 Colombia
Czechia 54-0 Mexico
South Africa 33-5 Thailand

Semifinals:

Sunday, January 18

09.28: South Africa v Poland

09.50: Argentina v Czechia

*Click here for all Sunday’s fixtures!

Mens teams

Madagascar 0-24 Belgium
Canada 33-7 Italy
Tonga 14-33 Hong China
Samoa 26-7 Colombia
Madagascar 11-10 Italy
Canada 15-19 Belgium
Tonga 19-12 Colombia
Samoa 31-17 Hong Kong China
Belgium 14-22 Italy
Canada 24-17 Madagascar
Hong Kong China 38-10 Colombia
Samoa 34-12 Tonga