Dubai: South Africa once again appear the team to beat after making an impressive start to the defence of their Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens title.
Paul Treu's squad recorded easy wins in pool play over Canada and Tunisia yesterday before stepping up a gear to comfortably outplay an inexperienced England in the final match of the day.
Champions New Zealand, chasing their first win in the traditional opening leg of the IRB series here since 2003, also completed a clean sweep, but had to survive an almighty scare against France in their final game before emerging with a 21-19 success.
Fiji showed they will once again be there or thereabouts with a hat-trick of wins, while Samoa battled through.
But South Africa appear to have the necessary pace, poise and experience to go all the way with Fabian Juries, the third highest try scorer in IRB Sevens history, back in the side and fast approaching his best, as a hat-trick of tries against England demonstrated.
Victory over Kenya today will clinch a semifinal berth against either New Zealand or Argentina. In the bottom-half of the draw, Samoa meet England and Fiji clash with Scotland.
‘Lot of positives'
Treu said: “We have a lot of positives to take forward. I was pleased to beat England, but what was more important for me was that we kept our focus.''
Counterpart Gordon Tietjens, meanwhile, said New Zealand received “a big wake up call'' after being run so close by France, who missed two very kickable shots at goal in the final frantic moments.
He said: “We started well to go 21 points up, but then went to sleep.''
