The opening day of HSBC SVNS in Cape Town witnessed the very best of rugby sevens with the top 12 men’s and women’s teams in the world showcasing their talents and feeding off the vibrant energy emanating from the stands in the Mother City.
There were fireworks on and off the pitch as the new era of rugby sevens continued to bring the feel-good factor at the second round of HSBC SVNS 2024, following the season opener in Dubai last weekend, which was won by South African men and Australian women.
South Africa’s Blitzboks continued where they left off in the men’s competition with wins over Great Britain and the USA securing their place in the quarter-finals before going down to Ireland in the last match of a thrilling day, which means the hosts face Australia in the quarter-finals on Sunday morning.
The other men’s quarter-finals see Argentina play Canada, Ireland face New Zealand and Fiji take on France.
The men’s tournament has been reduced from 16 to 12 teams in the new SVNS format this season and the increased intensity was evident on day one as last season’s title winners New Zealand suffered a pair of defeats to Canada and Samoa.
However, the All Blacks Sevens still managed to scrape through to the quarter-finals thanks to a convincing win over rivals Australia, meaning last year’s Cape Town winners Samoa failed to reach the quarter-finals.
In pool B Fiji, Argentina and France all recorded two wins and a loss to reach the quarter-finals and Los Pumas’ veteran Gastón Revol is celebrating playing his 100th tournament. Revol said: “I’m really proud of everything that has happened over the years. I’m most happy because of the win today. The present is always the most important thing so it’s very good for the 100, but we are here now in Cape Town, we want to go game by game.”
South Africa has unearthed a new talent in Quewin Nortje as they set out on their quest for a first home title since 2015. The flyer added two more tries to the four he scored on debut in Dubai last week, as they beat Great Britain 19-5 in the opener.
“It’s such a privilege to be here. A first Cape Town sevens is just an incredible experience,” Nortje said after making his first appearance in front of his home supporters.
Earlier in the day the women’s competition saw Australia, France and reigning Series and Cape Town champions New Zealand show their class to cruise through to the quarter-finals unbeaten.
Australia’s try machine Maddison Levi scored her 100th sevens try as the Dubai champions won three from three on the opening day.
Levi added another five touchdowns to the 12 she scored last weekend, to reach 100 tries in just 15 tournaments as the Australians set out their stall for a first-ever sevens series win in South Africa.
Australia will face Ireland in the second quarter-final on Sunday, while New Zealand take on Canada, France will meet Fiji, and Great Britain will play the USA.
Levi described becoming the fastest Australian player to reach 100 sevens tries as ‘insane’, after ensuring quarter-final qualification with a double in their third and final match.
“I guess we always do really well in Dubai and coming to Cape Town, we’ve never won here,” she said. “We won the World Cup here, I guess it’s motivation to prove that we can do it on this soil. But we’ll take it as it comes.”
The action continues from 09:00 local time (GMT+2) on Sunday with the quarter-finals and concludes with the women’s and men’s finals at 18:43 and 19:23 respectively.
