Blitzboks expecting tough clash against 'physical' Samoa

The Blitzboks are through to the knock-out stages of the Canada Sevens after winning their three pool games on Saturday.

Neil Powell's men saw off Spain (31-12), Canada (19-14) and Australia (22-19) and will now face Samoa in the quarter-final on Sunday evening at 20:03 (SA time).

It's a match that the Blitzboks' coaching team feel will be a tough encounter.

Speaking after the pool matches assistant coach Renfred Dazel says Samoa would use their physicality to try and dominate the contact areas.

"We have not played Samoa in a while and only watched them on tape," said Dazel.

"One thing is guaranteed and that is the physicality they will bring. 

"They are going to come straight at us and try and dominate the contact areas," he added.

Dazel was happy with how the team performed in the pool matches, especially in their comeback win over Australia.

"For us as coaches, we are pleased with the effort from the players, and we hope we can take this form into the Samoa game," said Dazel.

"We are getting closer to the standard we want to play and we as coaches believe that if we can continue with that, success could not be far off. The players stuck to the plan much better and did what we asked of them as coaches.

"If you look at the Australian match and how we handled them, it shows that the execution was good. We closed their space and executed our tackles. There is always room for improvement, and we can still get better in some areas."