The Blitzboks survived a physical onslaught from a powerful Samoa to win 22-12 in their opening game of the Cape Town Sevens on Saturday.

Despite conceding the first try of the game when big David Afamasaga scored to silence the nearly 50‚000 inside Cape Town Stadium‚ the Blitzboks remained calm.

Their smothering defence‚ which was below par in Dubai last week‚ was back to its best and from breakdown penalties the Blitzboks scored two first-half tries through veterans Kyle Brown and Philip Snyman to lead 10-7 at the break.

From another penalty early in the second half‚ the Blitzboks set up a lineout on the 22-metre line and produced a beautifully constructed try‚ straight from the training ground.

Justin Geduld finished the move.

A further try from replacement Impi Visser ensured the win although Samoa had the final say with a try on fulltime scored by John Vaili.

In the day’s earlier action Spain surprised Argentina with a 35-12 win.

Fiji and the USA both laid down strong markers with big wins. Fiji beat France 50-0 and the USA‚ finalists in Dubai last week‚ thrashed Japan 54-0.