Neil Powell’s team will now tackle Kenya on Saturday morning in one of the quarterfinal matches. Kick-off is 08h50 SA time.

Tries by Zain Davids and Shilton van Wyk gave the Blitzboks an early 14-0 advantage in the first half of their last match of the day at the Emirates Dubai 7s.

Alex Davis went over the whitewash just before the break to reduce the deficit to 14-7.

The second half was a tightly contested affair, however, the Britons made things difficult for themselves by having two men sent to the bin for yellow card offences.

It was the fleet-footed Ronald Brown who danced his way through the defence for their third converted try of the match, which sealed the win and top spot in Pool A.

Earlier on Friday, the Blitzboks scored eight tries in their 48-0 victory over Japan to start their quest for a second tournament win in two weeks. Interestingly, all of the eight tries were scored by a different player, with the Blitzboks scoring 24 unanswered points in each half.

Impi Visser, JC Pretorius, Shilton van Wyk and Siviwe Soyizwapi all got onto the scoresheet after an almost flawless first half, denying Japan any decent scoring chance.

The second half was equally impressive, with Zain Davids, Selvyn Davids, Ronald Brown and Shaun Williams each crossing the whitewash for a comfortable win.

The Blitzboks were very efficient in securing possession from kick-offs, with their strike runners doing the damage out wide at regular intervals.

Their first-time tackling was also spot-on and they competed with power and precision at the breakdown - all of which made for a very good outing in their first Pool A match of the day.

Against the Irish in their second match, the Blitzboks led 7-0 at halftime courtesy of Shilton van Wyk’s converted try.

Selvyn Davids, their influential playmaker, scored shortly after the resumption while Impi Visser also dotted down for a converted try to put the game out of reach of the Irish.

Ireland were difficult opponents and forced the South Africans into a number of errors. Terry Kennedy went over to gave the Irish hope with the score at 14-5, however, Visser’s powerful run through the middle to score near the poles clinched the game for the Blitzboks.

The Irish were rewarded for their determination when Aaron O’Sullivan crashed over in the left corner for a consolation converted try.

Scorers:

GAME 1: Springbok Sevens 48 (24) Japan 0

Springbok Sevens - Tries: Impi Visser, JC Pretorius, Shilton van Wyk, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Zain Davids, Selvyn Davids, Ronald Brown, Shaun Williams. Conversions: Branco du Preez (2), Brown (2).

GAME 2: Springbok Sevens 21 (7) Ireland 12 (0)

Springbok Sevens – Tries: Shilton van Wyk, Selvyn Davids, Impi Visser. Conversion: Branco du Preez, Ronald Brown (2).

Ireland – Tries: Terry Kennedy, Aaron O’Sullivan. Conversion: Mark Roche.

GAME 3: Springbok Sevens 21 (14) Great Britain 7 (7)

Springbok Sevens - Tries: Zain Davids, Shilton van Wyk, Ronald Brown. Conversions: Branco du Preez (2), Brown.

Great Britain - Try: Alex Davis. Conversion: Robbie Fergusson.