Rugby

The Springbok Sevens on Sunday regained the lead in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series with a fifth-place finish at the HSBC London Sevens at Twickenham, where they won five of their six matches with a strong rebound after last weekend's underwhelming performance in Toulouse.

The three South African franchises that booked their spots in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship play-offs will all take the field next Saturday, 4 June, on a jam-packed weekend of knock-out action, the tournament organisers confirmed on Monday.

The DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls will host valuable home quarter-finals in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship against Edinburgh and the Cell C Sharks respectively, following a pulsating closing round of league action this past weekend.

The Vodacom Bulls, DHL Stormers and Cell C Sharks will have a last throw of the dice to secure home ground advantage in the quarter-finals of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, with one of the three South African teams in line to grab second position on the log as the league phase of the competition comes to thrilling end this weekend.

It took them a while to get to Toulouse, but since their arrival on Monday evening, the Springbok Sevens team left little to chance for the remainder of the week and goes into Friday’s opening day of the HSBC France Sevens, at the Stade Ernest-Wallon, with the knowledge that they came prepared and capable to retain their slender six point lead at the top of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series standings.

The Springboks will play a Test in Adelaide for the first time when they line up against the Wallabies in the first of their two Castle Lager Rugby Championship matches in Australia on Saturday, 27 August, with their second encounter scheduled for the following week in New South Wales (venue to be confirmed) on 3 September.

The DHL Stormers, Cell C Sharks and Vodacom Bulls all booked their spots in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship playoffs with hard-fought home victories in the penultimate round of league action this weekend, while the Emirates Lions also finished their last home match of the season on a high.

Dr Dawie de Villiers, a former Springbok captain who passed away at the age of 81 on Saturday night after a long battle with cancer, was honoured for his role in South African rugby, but also in the wider society as a politician later in his life, by Mr Mark Alexander, president of the South African Rugby Union.

The DHL Stormers marched into an impressive second place and the Cell C Sharks into fourth on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log, while the Vodacom Bulls remained in eighth position in a rewarding round for three of South Africa’s four sides.

SA Rugby announced on Friday that McDonald’s South Africa has joined their family of partners as the newest associate sponsor of the Springbok Sevens team, with their famous golden arches appearing on the Blitzboks’ shorts when they take the field at the HSBC Singapore Sevens this weekend.