South Africa and New Zealand lose but still advance to Cape Town Sevens quarters

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa and New Zealand lost pool games and still managed to advance to the Cape Town Sevens quarterfinals on Saturday.

Samoa failed to quality even though it beat New Zealand in a repeat of the 2022 final.

In the women’s competition, Australia, New Zealand and France swept their pools as they did last weekend in Dubai in the first leg of the sevens world series.

On the men’s side, South Africa’s unbeaten start to the world series — including another victory in Dubai — was ended by Ireland 14-12 in their pool decider.

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Ryan Oosthuizen and newcomer Quewin Nortje combined for Rosko Specman’s opening try, but Ireland went in front after Hugo Lennox set up Gavin Mullin for consecutive tries and a 14-5 lead at halftime. Offloading errors plagued both teams after the break and nobody scored until, with 35 seconds left, South Africa’s Dewald Human went over from a ruck cleanout.

Ireland, the only unbeaten men’s team, drew a quarterfinal against New Zealand, which lost to Canada 19-7 and Samoa 21-14. But New Zealand advanced as one of the two best third-placed teams thanks to a 35-5 thrashing of pool winner Australia.

Australia has a quarterfinal against South Africa, which is hunting its first home title since 2015.

Fiji rebounded from an opening loss to France by beating Dubai finalist Argentina 19-12 despite losing Josese Batirerega to a red card after a high tackle. Fiji will face France again in the quarters.

Argentina will play Canada, a winner against New Zealand and Samoa, in the other quarter.

Australia’s women were in imperious form on the back of winning Dubai again last weekend.

Spain, Japan and Fiji were swept aside by Australia and only one try allowed in their pool.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Maddison Levi added five more tries to her 12 in Dubai, and reached 100 tries in the series in her 15th tournament.

New Zealand and France also swept their pools.

Australia will face Ireland in the quarterfinals on Sunday, New Zealand plays Canada, France has Fiji, and Britain will meet the United States.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby