It is a new season, but unfortunately for the chasing pack in the HSBC World Sevens Series the pattern is the same: the Blitzboks are out in front and everyone has to catch them. Neil Powell’s team won the season-opening Dubai sevens to claim a maximum 22 log points to set them on their way in the 2017-18 campaign. In the process they defended their Dubai title on Saturday for their fifth series win in the emirate by beating New Zealand 24-12 in the final. Before that they picked off Samoa (26-10) and Fiji (12-7) in the quarters and semis. There were obvious signs of rust at the season-opening tournament‚ never more so than against Uganda in their opening pool match on Friday, which ended in a narrow 19-10 win. It was never going to be perfect in the opening weekend. Yet there were moments when the Blitzboks were simply sublime. Thrashing a good Kenya team 48-5 was perhaps the most complete performance of the weekend while their suffocating defence and relentless pressure in the fir...
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