The Blitzboks topped Pool C at the Hamilton leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series to secure a quarterfinal berth on Saturday.

South Africa will play against Samoa in the quarterfinals after the Pacific islanders caused one of the upsets of the tournament by beating England 12-10 in their opening Pool B match.

The Blitzboks were clinical in their Pool matches beating Kenya 29-10 in their opening game where veteran Kyle Brown scored the opening try. Brown is playing his 68th tournament‚ which equals the SA record‚ which he now shares with Frankie Horne.

SA scored a further four tries in the match with Kenya scoring twice too.

In the Blitzboks’ second match‚ they saw off a spirited France 17-5 in a tighter encounter before inflicting an impressive 26-7 defeat on Scotland.

The Blitzboks’ form in the match against Scotland was a good sign heading into the knockout stages against dangerous opponents.

“I am happy in our progress. We have improved in every game and that is what we were looking for‚” coach Neil Powell said.

“We started a bit slow against Kenya‚ but improved during the match and continued with that against France and Scotland.”

Scotland qualified second from the Pool despite the loss to SA and will meet World Series leaders the USA in the last eight.

The USA were again impressive‚ beating Tonga‚ Samoa and England to top Pool B and underline that their two final appearances in Dubai and Cape Town were not flukes.

Samoa will be tough opponents for the Blitzboks. Hamilton is like a home tournament for the islanders and they enjoy massive support from the locals.

“It is going to be physical and the team who use their chances best should prevail‚” Blitzbok coach Neil Powell said.

“Defence will be key and if we can pitch up defensively against them‚ we will be in the match.”

Despite their three wins playmaker Branco du Preez feels there is a lot more room for improvement from the Blitzboks.

“We will need to control restarts better [in the knockout stages] and also take more control of games‚” Du Preez said.

“There are some little things to improve but most importantly we have to keep supporting each other.”

Fiji‚ who are one of four teams chasing the USA at the top of the standings‚ won all three of their Pool A matches to top the Pool‚ with Australia taking the second quarterfinal place.

Hosts New Zealand were in ominous form‚ thrashing Japan 52-0 and Canada 49-10 on their way to winning Pool D. Australia won’t enjoy the prospect of facing their antipodean rivals in the last eight.

The Cup quarterfinals on Sunday are (SA times):

1.36am: Fiji vs Canada

1.58am: South Africa vs Samoa

2.20am: New Zealand vs Australia

2.42am: USA vs Scotland