England have beaten the Springbok Sevens 22 – 19 in the semifinal of the USA tournament in San Diego on Monday morning and the two teams are sharing the lead at the top of the log in the IRB World Sevens Series table.

Argentina beat England 19-14 to take the Cup, their first success since 2004 when they also won in California.

SA and England lead the way with 60 points and they are 12 points clear of defending Series champions New Zealand.

South Africa lost a 12-0 lead against England and Paul Treu (SA coach) was understandably disappointed afterwards: “We spoke long and hard after conceding a good lead last week against Kenya in Wellington, and it was very disappointing to do so again against England at Petco Park.”

“We have worked extremely hard to get us into good positions in both competitions and the reality is that we will have to show much more composure in the big games if we want to challenge for the Series title,” explained Treu.

The team returns home on Wednesday and have just over a week to prepare for the Rugby World Cup which takes place early next month in Dubai. They leave next Friday for the desert city.

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The Springboks Sevens team will start their Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009 campaign against Japan, according to the International Rugby Board’s playing schedule announced yesterday.

The three day world rugby festival will see a total of 98 matches played on back to back pitches at the newly built The Sevens venue, with the men’s and women’s matches taking place across both pitches.

Wales and Zimbabwe gets the men’s action underway on 5 March with the opening game in Pool F.

South Africa’s match against Italy, the twelfth game on the opening day’s fixture list, starts at 18h38 (SA time) and the following day the Springbok Sevens will be in action against Canada and Scotland.

The quarter-finals, semi-finals and Bowl, Plate and Cup finals will all be played on match day three, 7 March.

The South African women start their campaign on 6 March against Italy and this is followed by two more encounters on the same day, against fellow African qualifiers Uganda and New Zealand.

The SA fixtures are (all SA times, 2 hours behind Dubai):

Men (Pool C)

Day 1 (March 5), SA vs. Japan (18h38)

Day 2 (March 6), SA vs. Canada (10h06); SA vs. Scotland (pitch two, 15h58)

Day 3 (March 7), Quarter- and Semi-finals, Finals

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South Africa beat Wales 26 – 12 on Saturday in the plate final of the Wellington Sevens Tournament in New Zealand with Wales leading 12 – 7 at halftime.

The Springbok Sevens collected eight valuable points for their effort, enough to keep them on top of the IRB World Sevens Series log with 48 points after three tournaments. England joined New Zealand in second spot with 44 point after their success in the Cup final.

England beat New Zealand 19-17 in a thrilling final to capture their first Wellington Sevens title.

South Africa, who lost to Kenya in the pool stages and New Zealand in Cup quarter-final, made a bright start when Frankie Horne collected a loose pass from Wales to run straight through (7-0). Wales hit back a minute later through a try by Craig Hill (7-5). Lee Williams then beat the cover defence to score Wales’ second try (12-7).

After the restart Vuyo Zangqa dotted down in the corner after a patient build-up from a set-piece to level the scores at 12-all. South Africa then produced probably their best second half performance of the tournament, keeping possession and displaying clinical finishing when needed. Renfred Dazel and Paul Delport scored in quick succession to secure the Plate for the Springbok Sevens.

Next week the teams will compete for the USA title in San Diego.

Source + Pic: sarugby.co.za

The South African Sevens team got off to a very good start by beating Scotland 24 – 0 today.

Ryno Benjamin ran in the first and the last try. Gio Aplan and Renford Dazel added to the four try victory by scoring one each. Renford Dazel and Mzwandile Stick each converted one try.

The tournament is being played at the Westpac Stadium, in Wellington, in fair weather.

In their second game the Springbok Sevens beat Tonga 22-5 after leading 17-5 at the break.

Renford Dazel, Paul Delport, Howard Noble and Philip Snyman each scored a try, while Renford Dazel was successful with a conversion.

South Africa plays Kenya in the last match of the Pool stage.

Source + Pic: sarugby.co.za

If Robert Ebersohn, who first represented South Africa with his talented twin brother, Sias (a flyhalf) at under-19 level, were to receive a call from Springbok Rugby Coach Peter de Villiers tomorrow asking him to join the ’Boks, he would choose to remain with the SA Sevens Team.

This talented young Free State centre, who was recently named the SA Young Player of the Year, was also crowned best player of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens Tournament in George on Saturday.

Not only was he one of the leading try scorers, but also defended like a man possessed, and on numerous occasions won turn over ball for his team.

The 19-year old took the decision not to make himself available for Super 14 rugby next year, and rather remain on the sevens circuit for another year, because he felt this would be best for his rugby career.

The Springbok coach, who attended the Sevens Tournament in George, said if he felt that if a player was good and mature enough, he wouldn’t hesitate to call him up from the Sevens side to the Springboks.

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The Sevens Springboks of South Africa finally won the IRB Sevens World Series final at Outeniqua Park in George on Saturday, by coming from behind and beating New Zealand 12 – 7.

“It was the first time South Africa had won the IRB tournament at home and also the first time that they had put two successive wins together. The Springboks beat England in Dubai last weekend.

It was a victory against all the odds, with South Africa weakened by the Super 14 call-ups of a number of stalwarts like Schalk van der Merwe, Fabian Juries, Jonothan Mokueana and the non-availability of Stefan Basson and the injured Marius Schoeman and captain Neil Powell.

Built on a solid defence and an unbelievable camaraderie and team spirit, the relatively inexperienced Springboks, lighter than their opponents in virtually every match defied all the odds — and are now clear leaders in the eight-tournament series.

Mzwandile Stick, who led the team in the absence of the injured Powell, was again outstanding in the final and scored the try that put the Boks ahead with less than two minutes remaining.

But hats off to every one of the players in this and the Dubai tournaments.

Robert Ebersohn received the Player of the Tournament award on saturday, but it might just as well have gone to any of Frankie Horn, Mpho Mbyozo, Stick or Renfred Dazel.

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Paul Treu, the Sprinbok sevens coach, named a squad of 20 players that will train in Stellenbosch as they prepare for the start of the IRB World Sevens Series. The IRB Series starts on the 30th of November in Dubai and then moves to George on the 7th of December. The 20-man squad will be reduced to 12 just before the team leaves for Dubai on the 21st of November.

Bok sevens squad: Danwell Demas, Trompie Nontshinga, Neil Powell, Renfred Dazel, Frankie Horn, Andries van Schalkwyk, Baldwin McBean, Norman Nelson, Mzwandile Stick, Fabian Juries, Jonathan Mokuena, Giscard Pieters, Tobela Mdaka, MJ Mentz, Terry Jacobs, Mpho Mbiyozo, Joe Pietersen, Mpho Matsaung, Schalk van der Merwe, Vuyo Zangqa