England have beaten the Springbok Sevens 22 – 19 in the semifinal of the USA tournament in San Diego on Monday morning and the two teams are sharing the lead at the top of the log in the IRB World Sevens Series table.

Argentina beat England 19-14 to take the Cup, their first success since 2004 when they also won in California.

SA and England lead the way with 60 points and they are 12 points clear of defending Series champions New Zealand.

South Africa lost a 12-0 lead against England and Paul Treu (SA coach) was understandably disappointed afterwards: “We spoke long and hard after conceding a good lead last week against Kenya in Wellington, and it was very disappointing to do so again against England at Petco Park.”

“We have worked extremely hard to get us into good positions in both competitions and the reality is that we will have to show much more composure in the big games if we want to challenge for the Series title,” explained Treu.

The team returns home on Wednesday and have just over a week to prepare for the Rugby World Cup which takes place early next month in Dubai. They leave next Friday for the desert city.

Injury has robbed the team of the experienced duo of Marius Schoeman and Neil Powell. Stick, stand-in captain in place of the unavailable Powell, sustained a hamstring injury on the first day in Wellington and missed San Diego as a result.

Good news for SA though is that both Schoeman and Powell have recovered from their hand injuries and will be ready for selection. Stick however, faces a race against time to regain full fitness.

The next tournament on the Series calendar is the popular Hong Kong event from 27 – 29 March and this will be followed a week later by the Adelaide Sevens, where South Africa are the defending champions.

Source: sarugby.co.za

Pic: irb.com