Cape Town – Ricardo Duartee was the star of the show as the Blitzboks hit back from 12-0 down to pull off a hard-fought 24-19 victory over Samoa in the Dubai Sevens Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.
The defending champions will now take on New Zealand in the semi-finals at 12.39pm, which will be preceded by the Ireland v USA semi at 12.17pm.
It was a disastrous start for the Springbok Sevens side as they lacked intensity in defence and gave the Samoans too much space to co-ordinate their attacks.
Samoa showed good patience with ball-in-hand, moving the South Africans from side to side before Vaa Apelu Maliko stepped past one defender and handed off another to open the scoring in the second minute.
Tricky Ricky Duarttee doing the business for @Blitzboks #HSBC7s | #Dubai7s pic.twitter.com/mbv3MzcUKY
— World Rugby 7s (@WorldRugby7s) December 3, 2022
Soon after that, it became even worse for the Blitzboks as Owen Niue knocked the ball out of the hands of JC Pretorius, and Uaina Sione picked up the loose ball and charged away.
Coach Sandile Ngcobo would have been hoping for some inspiration from somewhere, and it came from tournament debutant Duarttee, who showed tremendous side-stepping ability and speed to flummox the Samoan defence and dot down.
A few seconds later, Duarttee was it again, showing off some fancy footwork once more after Pretorius had won a turnover, and Muller du Plessis rounded off to level the scores at 12-12.
Captain Siviwe Soyizwapi was well set to finish the half in style as he stepped past Maliko near the tryline, but the Samoan knocked the ball out of his hands.
"I believe we will lift this cup" 🙏
Ricardo Duarttee knows @Blitzboks are just two matches from #Dubai7s glory after victory against Samoa#HSBC7s pic.twitter.com/Xu4IRKGp7P
The Blitzboks were on the back foot early in the second half as some average defending allowed Paul Scanlan to dance his way through, and at 19-12 and the heat rising in Dubai, it looked like they would do enough to reach the semi-finals.
But they didn’t reckon with Duarttee, who took a quick tap penalty following a scrum and darted over.
The conversion was missed, so Samoa still led 19-17, but the Blitzboks’ increased physicality paid off as they were awarded another breakdown penalty, and James Murphy ran in the winning try.
Branco du Preez then cleverly booted the ball deep from the kickoff, and Samoa were unable to get out of their 22 as the South Africans clinched victory with another breakdown penalty.
Points-Scorers
South Africa 24 – Tries: Ricardo Duarttee (2), Muller du Plessis, James Murphy. Conversions: Dewald Human (2).
Samoa 19 – Tries: Vaa Apelu Maliko, Uaina Sione, Paul Scanlan. Conversions: Scanlan (2).
Cup semi-final fixtures:
12.17pm: Ireland v USA
12.39pm: New Zealand v South Africa
Cup quarter-final results:
Argentina 14-19 Ireland, USA 24-19 Australia, France 0-20 New Zealand, South Africa 24-19 Samoa
IOL Sport