With Zac Ward weighing in with two tries, the Ireland Men (sponsored by TritonLake) overcame South Africa to advance to the Cup quarter-finals at the HSBC SVNS Series tournament in Vancouver.
Hugo Lennox and Gavin Mullin also touched down during the 22-10 victory, as Ireland's best performance of the weekend so far saw them jump above the Blitzboks to finish third in Pool C and book a quarter-final berth.
Intriguingly, it will be a European derby in the last-eight as James Topping's side come up against Pool B winners France, who have 15s star Antoine Dupont making his Sevens debut in Canada. The game kicks off at 7.28pm local time/3.28am Irish time (live on RugbyPass TV).
Chasing a vital first win in the 'pool of death', Ireland's impressive ball retention off the kick-off, which was won by Ward, resulted in a second-minute try. Mullin had to dive on one loose ball, but it was a strong collective start full of direct running and attacking intent.
The in-form Ward brilliantly outmuscled two South African defenders and had two more for company as he stretched out to score one-handed, with TMO Matt Rodden confirming the grounding. Lennox slid the conversion wide.
South Africa got speed merchant Shilton van Wyk on the ball, and a tap penalty provided the platform for captain Selvyn Davids to send David Brits over in the right corner to tie up the game at five points apiece.
Lennox battled hard to force a knock-on from Zain Davids, and Ireland used the possession wisely. Their patient build-up play led to Ward shrugging of two tackles on halfway, charging through and taking a return offload from Terry Kennedy to score out wide.
Armed with a 10-5 interval lead, Ireland, and Ward in particular, continued to swat away tacklers. A penalty put them in range again, and a clever lineout move saw receiver Harry McNulty immediately deliver the ball back down to Lennox who scampered over on a 15-metre run-in.
With 11 minutes on the clock, Mullin finished off try number four in the left corner after Jordan Conroy had sucked in two defenders before releasing him. Mullin's ninth try of the current campaign was neatly converted by Billy Dardis for a 22-5 scoreline.
The Blitzboks pulled back five points when Rosko Specman crossed out wide from Justin Geduld's long pass. Their restart kick did not go 10 metres, though, and following a reset scrum on halfway, Dardis fed Kennedy to kick the ball dead and seal Ireland's progress to the last-eight.
You can watch all of the HSBC SVNS Series matches for free on RugbyPass TV, while there will be coverage of Ireland’s progress in Vancouver across the new @Ireland7s social media channels, and in our Ireland Sevens hub: irishrugby.ie/ireland7s.
Ireland Men Beat Blitzboks To Reach Vancouver's Last-Eight
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24th February 2024
