Shilton van Wyk was the hero for the Blitzboks on Saturday, as they began their title defence at SVNS Cape Town with a thrilling 24-21 win over Fiji. Van Wyk completed a hat-trick with time practically up on the clock, as the hosts claimed a crucial win to kick off their campaign.<\/p>\n
South Africa<\/a> brought an end to a nine-year Cup title drought on home soil when they defeated Olympic gold medallists France<\/a> 26-17 on December 8, 2024. Thousands watched on at DHL Stadium as the Blitzboks went undefeated throughout that two-day event.<\/p>\n The Blitzboks went on to win the overall World Championship in Los Angeles with a famous win over Spain<\/a> in May, and carried title-winning ambitions into the 2025\/26 HSBC SVNS Series \u2013 which got underway last weekend at the iconic Dubai Sevens.<\/p>\n France topped a difficult pool in Dubai, while South Africa finished in fourth place, having lost to Fiji<\/a> on the opening day of play. \u00a0It\u2019s a clich\u00e9 but one week is a long time in rugby, and the Blitzboks proved that yet again on a hot day in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n Joseva Talacolo drew in a couple of defenders before getting a trademark offload off to Apete Narogo, who raced away to score the opener for Fiji. Terio Veilawa added the extras to give the Fijians an idyllic start to the match.<\/p>\n Christie Grobbelaar hit back for the Blitzboks one minute later, before the Fijians regained some control through Viwa Naduvalo. Naduvalo beat a couple of defenders before gliding down the field with sheer pace to add another five points to Fiji\u2019s score.<\/p>\n But then, van Wyk began to take over.<\/p>\n Van Wyk showcased individual flair and skill to score a try deep in the first half. The 25-year-old kicked the ball ahead and regathered without losing any pace, as the SVNS Series regular touched down for a decisive score.<\/p>\n It was 14-12 at the break, with Fiji building on their lead through Talacolo in the 10th minute. The Boks were down but not out, with van Wyk making it a one-score game with a late try, with Ronald Brown<\/a> converting the try from near the right sideline.<\/p>\n Fiji knocked the ball on with 40 seconds left which gave the Blitzboks hope. Brown came close to scoring but offloaded to van Wyk, who crossed for the match-winner with about five seconds left on the clock.<\/p>\n In the other opening-round Pool A fixture, the All Blacks<\/a> Sevens reinforced their credentials as a title contender with a commanding 29-12 win over Great Britain.\u00a0 Frank Vaenuku<\/a> helped the New Zealanders fight their way back from an early deficit, as they took control.<\/p>\n France overcame a valiant Spain side 19-14 in the opening Pool B match of the weekend, before Argentina<\/a> made a statement with a 36-0 thumping of Australia. Luciano Gonzalez<\/a> and Marcos Moneta<\/a> were among the try-scorers for Los Pumas<\/a> Sevens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shilton van Wyk was the hero for the Blitzboks on Saturday, as they began their title defence at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-302903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}