New Zealand end sevens series drought
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Dec 11, 2017
The New Zealand men's sevens team has won the Cape Town leg of the World Series circuit.
They bounced back to trounce Spain 50-0 in their second match, running in eight tries, including braces to Tim Mikkelson and Sam Dickson, then went on to beat Australia 35-12.
Meanwhile, South African Seabelo Senatla became the fastest scorer of 200 World Rugby Sevens Series tries on Saturday.
It's their first win under new coach Clark Laidlaw, and puts them top of the 10-tournament ladder, two points clear of last year's series winners South Africa.
"We are over the moon and I'm so proud of how the guys played‚ not only this weekend but also the way we played in Dubai‚" NZ captain Scott Curry said.
Curry added: "We started fresh today and really worked for each other and that's what won it for us".
Canada just missed out on third place, losing to host South Africa 19-17 on Sunday in the bronze-medal match at the Cape Town Sevens rugby tournament. They had beaten United States of America 28-12 in Cup quarterfinal. He reached the milestone in 16 fewer tournaments than England's Dan Norton.
Senatla came back and scored two tries for the Blitzboks.
With time up in the firs half Cecil Afrika slithered through a small gap in the Kiwi defence to score and give the Blitzboks a narrow 12-7 halftime lead after Branco du Preez converted. Conversions: Justin Geduld (2).
SA - Tries: Philip Snyman, Cecil Afrika.
Ravouvou received a yellow card for a unsafe tackle in tackle in the build-up to the try but the home team failed to take advantage of the situation and it was NZ that scored next when Tim Mikkelson charged over and Vilimoni Koroi converted to edge NZ in front. Conversions: Koroi‚ Andrew Knewstubb.
