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Live blog: Sevens Challenger Series – day two
By Liam Heagney
RugbyPass is live from Stellenbosch for the second day of the second and final leg of the 2023 Challenger Series. Friday’s 24 matches resulted in nine teams – five men’s and four women’s – reaching the quarter-finals with a pool match to spare and Saturday morning at the Markotter Stadium on the banks of the Eerste will be spent deciding the identity of the remaining seven qualifiers.
Chile – courtesy of a thrilling last-gasp win over last weekend’s champions Tonga – Germany, Uganda, Hong Kong China and Belgium have also reached the men’s last eight, with hosts South Africa, Belgium, Czechia and China all through to the knockout stage in the women’s section.
Amongst the men’s qualifiers, there is still plenty of jockeying for top-seed positions. For instance, Germany and Uganda face off at 11:10am local time to decide who will top Pool B. That happens shortly after Hong Kong China and Belgium meet at 10:38am with the top spot in Pool C at stake.
The eventual men’s champions, a title that will be decided on the aggregate placings across both Challenger Series weekends, will go forward into a four-team qualifier in London next month where a promotion place into next season’s revamped elite World Series will be at stake.
That World Series qualification is a prize automatically guaranteed in the women’s section to the champions of the Challenger Series. Having won last weekend’s first-leg title, the Springboks are tipped to this weekend confirm their return to the sevens elite, but there can be no guarantee.
They showed their nerves on Friday when falling into arrears to Madagascar and although they hit back to win 19-5, they know that rivals such as Belgium, who led them in last weekend’s first-leg final, are capable of causing an upset.
South Africa round off the Challenger Series pool programme with an 11:32 clash with Thailand which will be followed by a two-hour break before the quarter-finals schedule commences at 1:54pm. The men’s quarter-final matches are pencilled in for later in the afternoon.
Follow all the live blog action below and click here for a live stream provided by the SA RU:
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Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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