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The famous Wellington 7s – The holidays have come to an end for our African players going back to the office ! On Saturday, January 30th, 7s rugby reclaimed it rights in Wellington (New Zealand) sacred land of the oval ball.
As usual, the World Rugby Sevens Series took place over two days, on January 30th and 31st under a little mitigated weather. A little wind, sun, rain, well, all the seasons in a weekend ! Nevertheless attendance was as usual very good with a crowd of over 72,000 at Westpac Stadium over the weekend coming to be part of this unavoidable Sevens yearly event.
Saturday, January 30th :
KENYA 31 – 7 CANADA
KENYA 26 – 5 PORTUGAL
KENYA 12 – 17 AUSTRALIA
SOUTH AFRICA 28 – 5 SCOTLAND
SOUTH AFRICA 54 – 0 RUSSIA
SOUTH AFRICA 14 – 19 NEW ZEALAND
Sunday, January 31st :
NEW ZEALAND 36 – 0 KENYA
KENYA 14 – 35 ARGENTINA
AUSTRALIA 14 – 26 SOUTH AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA 31 – 0 FIJI
NEW ZEALAND 24 – 21 SOUTH AFRICA
The All Blacks once again were victorious of the Wellington 7s. They actually haven’t failed to win this tournament since the 2012-2013 season. The South African had to concede defeat to the Kiwi who did not intend to let a home final escape them ! Nevertheless the Blitzbokke retain the first place of the general ranking, with an advance of 2 points on the Fiji’s team.
Kenya as for them progressed in the rankings and are now ranked 8th.
Two African players are from now on in the ranking of the best scorer of the tournament. This week, both of them are South African ; the first one is no other than Seabelo Senatla with than 7 tries to his credit and the sixth is Rosco Speckman with 5 tries scored. What to assure still beautiful win to the Boks !
The Kenyans also made strong sensation this weekend. Impressive by their power, their ease, their speed, they bowl teams and spectators over by offering a show worthy of Africa !
In 4 days, World Rugby Sevens Series continue its world tour and puts down its suitcases in Sydney for the 4th stage of the circuit. For the occasion, the South African team will be a little modified, indeed further to a shoulder injury, Justin Geduld will be replaced by Tim Agaba.
Neil Powell, Springbok Sevens coach, said Agaba now has the opportunity to show what he can do at the highest level : “He played very well for the EP Kings in the Currie Cup and also starred for the SA Rugby Sevens Academy side in their three tournaments recently in Dubai and South America respectively. Tim only joined our setup recently and I know he is still inexperienced. But the only way to test whether a player is capable of playing at this level is by giving him a chance.”
