The Springbok Women's Sevens team started the Uruguay leg of the HSBC SVNS 2 tournament slowly, but exploded into try-scoring action later on Saturday to jump to the top of the standings after the three matches played on at the Estadio Charrua in Montevideo.
The South Africans had a poor start in their opening match against Spain and conceded three tries in the opening seven minutes of the match, but rallied strongly, just running out of time in the second half as they went down by 14-15.
They then responded in impressive fashion with victories over China (38-0) and Brazil (26-0) to jump to the top of the standings at the end of day one, scoring 10 tries without reply in their last two encounters.
The opening half against Spain was a messy affair. The Bok Women conceded an early yellow card when Ayanda Malinga was sin-binned for slapping the ball down and conceded three tries as they just could not get any momentum in their play, with a rainstorm compounding matters.
A stern reminder of the reason for their trip across the Atlantic Ocean by SA coach Cecil Afrika had the desired effect and suddenly the class started to show. They came back strongly in the second half with two converted tries, but just ran out of time to clinch the match-winning try.
Malinga redeemed herself in the second match against China, scoring three tries in a clinical display of sevens by the South Africans. They never gave the Chinese a chance to breathe with strong defence, and impressed with fluency on attack, with a variety of tries scored by Malinga and co.
The huge winning margin - and some other results in the second round of matches - resulted in the Bok Women going to the top of the standings on points difference and they stayed there at the end of the day after another good performance against Brazil.
The victory over Brazil was well executed. They never allowed the South Americans to get into any sort of momentum and redeemed the defeat suffered in the opening HSBC SVNS 2 tournament in Kenya.
Nadine Roos scored a double, Maria Tshiremba showed off her uncanny ability to round opponents with ease, and Catha Jacobs - back in the squad for the first time since 2020 - scored a try to celebrate her return to the sevens code.
Two matches remain on Sunday, against Kenya at 19h23 (SA time) and Argentina at 22h39.
Scorers:
South Africa 14 (0), Spain 15 (15)
SA - Tries: Nadine Roos, Byrhandré Dolf. Conversions: Roos (2).
Spain - Tries: Marta Cantabrana, Carmen Miranda Miralles, Denisse Gortazar.
South Africa 38 (26), China 0 (0)
SA - Tries: Ayanda Malinga (3), Maria Tshiremba, Nadine Roos, Shannon-Lee Windvogel. Conversions: Roos (4).
South Africa 26 (12), Brazil 0 (0)
SA - Tries: Nadine Roos (2), Maria Tshiremba, Catha Jacobs. Conversions: Roos (3).