South Africa 41 - Russia 0
Cape Town - In the build-up to the much-anticipated Cape Town Sevens tournament, the Springbok Sevens members spoke a lot about forgetting about their Dubai win and starting over.
And they did exactly that with a scintillating performance against a hapless Russia side in their first match of the day.
The Blitzboks completely overpowered the Russians with solid work on attack, defence and in the physicality department. And they showed exactly why they were undefeated in the Arabian desert.
Happy with opening match says coach @Neil5Powell but @Blitzboks must start from scratch for next match vs @USASevensRugby @SteinhoffRugby pic.twitter.com/N7ISTHRqoQ
— Springbok Sevens (@Blitzboks) December 10, 2016
Flyer Seabelo Senatla was the man of the moment in the first spell, running in two quick tries to give the South Africans the early lead.
Werner Kok was also awarded for his sky-high work rate when he got two five-pointers in succession towards the end of the match.
Justin Geduld pulled off a fantastic cover tackle to deny Russia's only hope of a try when Vladislav Lazarenko was driven into touch in the second half.
The Blitzboks' first try came when former skipper Kyle Brown showed some quick thinking and switched the direction of play where he found Branco du Preez, who then put lethal finisher Senatla away on his outside to score in the right corner (7-0).
Shortly afterwards the South Africans capitalised beautifully on a counter-attacking opportunity after Russia got into their 22 for the first time, and Neil Powell's men put some seamless interplay on show before finding Senatla again, who sprinted half the length of the pitch to score (12-0).
The wheels started coming off for Russia when Blitzbok skipper Philip Snyman crashed over the whitewash as halftime was approaching to strengthen their already-commanding lead (17-0).
The Blitzboks went from strength and they showed no signs of stopping in the second half, and that was made clear when Dylan Sage added to the Russian demolition with his ninth try of his career (22-0).
Energetic Werner Kok rubbed even more salt into the Russians' exposed rugby wounds with two quick tries, and Geduld also got his name on the scoresheet with a last five-pointer for the Blitzboks (41-0).
South Africa's next match is against the USA at 4.10pm.
Point-scorers: South Africa – Tries: Seabelo Senatla (2), Philip Snyman, Dylan Sage, Werner Kok (2), Justin Geduld. Conversions: Branco du Preez (1), Geduld (1), Rosko Specman (1).