Challenger 2025: South Africa seal semifinal spot

DAY ONE WRAP: The Springbok Women’s Sevens were in impressive form on the opening day of the second tournament in the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town, with a commanding 45-5 win over Samoa in their first pool game before outplaying Poland 43-0 to top Pool C and qualify for the semifinals on Saturday.

They will meet Czechia for a place in the final.

The other semifinal is between Kenya, last weekend’s winners, and Colombia.

For a second consecutive weekend, the South Africans started well, looking focused and smooth on attack. They scored three first-half tries for a 21-0 lead at the break, followed by four more in the second half.

Samoa were largely outgunned by South Africa’s pace, but did breach the hosts’ defensive line once, when Machiko Silila Fepuleai ran strongly down the touchline to score.

Rights Mkhari opened the scoring with a lovely run down left, followed shortly by Nadine Roos, who raced through the heart of the Samoan defence to score.

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Still unbeaten after the first day of #7sChallengerSeries

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— HSBC SVNS (@SVNSSeries) March 7, 2025

Zintle Mpupha got the third try before the half-time buzzer, with Roos converting all three.

The second half delivered more of the same. Roos and Mpupha added to their tally before Fepuleai got over the line to make it 33-5.

Two more tries, by Ayanda Malinga and Shiniqwa Lamprecht, followed, with Alicia Willemse kicking the conversion for her first international points.

A swarming defensive effort rattled the Poles in the opening stages of the second match, forcing the European side into handling errors. The Bok Women capitalised on this with structured play from set phases and set moves.

Roos and Maria Tshiremba scored in the opening five minutes, with both tries coming from good, flowing attacks, before Roos added her second five-pointer just before the break to hand her side a 19-0 lead.

The second half was another masterclass on attack, again with Roos instrumental at pivot.

She combined nicely with Zintle Mpupha to rush the latter through a gap and a strong finish before Tshiremba bagged a second try, which came from a South African scrum option and some solid passing found the flying winger in space.

Roos then got her hat-trick and converted for a match tally of 23 points before Malinga got her second try of the day.

Day One Results:

Men:

Portugal 36-0 Brazil
Madagascar 19-27 Georgia
Uganda 19-21 Tonga
Japan 19-17 Hong Kong China
Samoa 40-14 Brazil
Germany 21-14 Georgia
Canada 26-24 Tonga
Chile 24-7 Hong Kong China
Samoa 12-19 Portugal
Germany 28-12 Madagascar
Canada 38-7 Uganda
Chile 15-17 Japan

Women:

Thailand 33-0 Mexico
Poland 36-7 Samoa
Czech Republic 19-24 Hong Kong China
Uganda 22-7 Belgium
Colombia 42-0 Mexico
South Africa 45-5 Samoa
Argentina 34-7 Hong Kong China
Kenya 17-5 Belgium
Colombia 21-14 Thailand
South Africa 43-0 Poland
Argentina 22-26 Czech Republic
Kenya 10-5 Uganda