The South African sevens team started the Emirates Airline South African sevens tournament in impressive fashion in George at Outeniqua Park on Friday, easily beating Namibia 49-5 in their opening Pool D game.
The hosts — clearly buoyed by their win in Dubai last week — ran in seven tries and looked sharp on the opening day of the second leg of the International Rugby Board’s Sevens Series. They would not have been happy, though, with a conceded try and a yellow card to Eugene Francis.
Marius Schoeman got the hosts on the scoreboard when he raced away after Namibia spilled the ball in a tackle. Earl Rose converted.
Schoeman extended the margin with a great run along the touchline, using his superior speed to outsprint Namibia, and Rose converted again.
Francis was yellow-carded for a high tackle, but even with him on the sideline, the try-scoring continued when Schoeman got his hat-trick in the fifth minute. Rose converted before scoring a try himself.
The side-stepping playmaker ran through the Namibian team on his own and added the extra two with the conversion to give South Africa a 28-0 lead at the break.
Jaco Kotze got the Namibians on the scoresheet when he broke through a tackle after good lead-up play by his teammates just after the restart.
Hometown boy Kabamba Floors then had the crowd on their feet when he broke through to set up a Danville Demas try. Rose converted.
Jose van Rensburg added another shortly afterwards, giving Rose his sixth successful conversion.
Star player Fabian Juries ran in the last try and Rose kept his strike rate going with yet another conversion. — Sapa