Hosts impress to reach Cape Town Sevens quarters

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South Africa, New Zealand, France, Ireland and Kenya finished the pool stages of the Cape Town Sevens unbeaten to march into the quarter-finals in style.

A crowd of 52,612 packed into Cape Town Stadium for day two of the tournament on Saturday, creating an electric atmosphere whenever their beloved Blitzboks were playing and cheering them to victories over Fiji and USA.

South Africa, New Zealand and France won all three matches to top their respective pools, while Ireland and Kenya played out an entertaining 24-24 draw in the Pool D decider with the men in green finishing top on points difference.

They are joined in the Cup quarter-finals by Fiji, Argentina and Scotland with Dubai bronze medallists England and USA the biggest names to miss out on the top eight, the latter for the first time since Singapore in April 2018. The two will now meet each other in the ninth place play-off.

The first Cup quarter-final, at 11:18 local time (GMT+2), is an all-African affair with South Africa taking on Kenya for the right to face the winner of the encounter between France and Argentina.

Ireland’s reward for topping their pool is a meeting with Fiji, who turned on the style in their final match against Japan to ensure they didn’t miss out on the quarter-finals twice in a series for the first time.

The last quarter-final pits New Zealand, the most successful team in series history in South Africa, against Scotland, who progressed as runners-up in Pool B after France’s victory against England.

Later in the day, the other play-offs for the lower places will see Wales and Japan to again battle off 15th place as they did in Dubai, Samoa to tackle Spain for 13th and Australia to meet Canada for 11th place.

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