Awesome start by NZ and SA at Las Vegas Sevens

Looking like an Awesome tournament this weekend with only two points the difference between SA and traditional rivals NZ on the World Series standings.

NZ are yet to win this tournament in 5 attempts and are without star halfback Tomasi Cama. Injuries also leading to the withdrawl of Joe Webber and Sherwin Stowers.

Rising star 18 yr old Akiri Ione also unable to sort out his travel documents in time and travel to Vegas after a big Nationals performance had him named in the side.

Awesome start though to the Las Vegas Sevens by NZ after wiping out Australia in their first game 37 -0 then beating Scotland 26 -5

NZ this round in the pool of death with Fiji (tomorrow) , Australia and Scotland.

Fiji easily overcame Scotland 24 -0 in their first game .

South Africa also looking dangerous beating Wales convincingly 43 -0 and beating Canada 29 -0.

Other results of note

Samoa beat England in a thriller on Day 1 22 -19

Hosts USA edged by Argentina 19 - 17

Canada 17 - Kenya 15

TOP 8 Nations in World Sevens Series

NZ          58 pts

SA          56 pts

Fiji          48 pts

England   40 pts

Aus         34 pts

Arg         33 pts

Kenya      32 pts

Samoa     32 pts

 Oz did well to beat Fiji so we can expect the Fijians to bounce back. There's plenty of speed and physicallity about the BlitzBokke not to mention their composure. Here's hoping we see a Kiwi vs Bokke final.

Go Bokke!

 There are differences between the approach of SA and New Zealand in the approach towards Sevens.   South Africa relies in the main on -

*   speedy players with lots of ball skills; and

*   good defence

The NZ players are basically slower and heavier, but they have ball skills and a good game plan to counter their speed deficiency.   However they are not really all that good in defence - lacking speed is to their detriment.   They were badly beaten in the Las Vegas Sevens last year and was under constant pressure in PE as well.   In the second half of the latter series they were virtually never out of their own half of the field.

I think the SA team is likely to meet them in the finals again - and in that event would say the NZ team has a winning chance of around 30%.