Home Sport Blitzboks win Covid-curtailed Edmonton Sevens crown

Blitzboks win Covid-curtailed Edmonton Sevens crown

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South Africa celebrate winning the HSBC Sevens Series during day 2 of the HSBC Canada Sevens Edmonton held at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Canada on 26th September 2021. Picture: P Yates, World Rugby

The Blitzboks clinched the pandemic-abbreviated World Sevens Series on Sunday, defeating Great Britain 24-12 to win the Edmonton Sevens title in Canada.

MONTREAL – The Blitzboks clinched the pandemic-abbreviated World Sevens Series on Sunday, defeating Great Britain 24-12 to win the Edmonton Sevens title in Canada.

Two tries each from Muller du Plessis and Siviwe Soyizwapi secured a comfortable victory for the South Africans, who had also won last week’s Vancouver Sevens.

Robbie Ferguson and Tom Bowen scored Britain’s tries.

ALSO READ: Clean slate for Blitzboks on day one in Edmonton

This season’s international seven-a-side circuit has been decimated by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, with World Rugby announcing earlier this month the cancellation of tournaments in Singapore and Cape Town.

South Africa needed only to make the final at Edmonton to be crowned series champion after its tournament victory in the Vancouver, British Columbia leg last week in a shortened 2021 series due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Hong Kong Sevens had already been cancelled due to travel restrictions and the Delta variant. The Dubai Sevens is also no longer part of the 2021 series and will instead be incorporated into the 2022 circuit.

South Africa’s victory on Sunday came at the end of a severely depleted tournament, with heavyweight teams such as Fiji, Australia and New Zealand all failing to take part.

Kenya beat Canada 33-14 for third place on Sunday and Germany beat the United States 24-19 for fifth.

AFP

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