Three separate players notched up hat-tricks in the desert, but South Africa’s flyer Maria Tshiremba kicked off with four in a single match, and added one more on day one.
Meanwhile, South Africa conceded just two tries in three Pool A games, but Argentina went one better in Pool B, their tryline breached just once in their three outings on day one.
With promotion to next month’s HSBC SVNS 2 Series on the line, South Africa will face Poland, who finished second in Pool B, while Argentina will take on Czechia, in the semi-finals, with the remaining four teams facing off for the minor places.
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POOL A: South Africa lay down day-one marker
Maria Tshiremba’s first-half triple sent South Africa on the way to an eight-try 61-0 win over Mexico. She added a fourth early in the second half, before giving way to Patience Mokone, who scored twice with her first two touches.
Tshiremba took her try tally to five in two games, as Cecil Afrika’s side eased to a well-worked 24-5 victory over Czechia. And South Africa made it a perfect three from three with a 33-5 victory over a game Thailand in the final Pool A game of the day.
Earlier, Anežka-Marta Sládková had led Czechia to a 32-5 victory over Thailand, notching up a hat-trick on the way.
And Julie Doležilová, Justyna Silarszka, and Julie Durychova all weighed in with doubles as Czechia hit Mexico with eight touchdowns in a 54-0 win that put them on the brink of the semi-finals.
Thailand had taken their time getting up to speed, and paid the price against Czechia, but kicked into gear in their second outing. Dion Akwaja dotted down twice in a 45-0 win over Mexico taking her total to three in two games.
POOL B: Argentina shine in the desert
Argentina picked up where they had left off on the old HSBC Challenger Series as they eased to a 45-0 opening match win over Samoa, Marianela Escalante, Sofia Gonzalez, and Talia Rodich all scoring doubles.
Their pace got the better of power in the second game, a battle of the Pool B favourites, as they ran in four tries to Poland’s one to win 22-5.
Poland’s try was the only one Argentina conceded in the pool phase, as they rounded off their day one efforts with a hard-fought 14-0 win over Colombia.
Earlier, Natalia Pamięta had scored the first-ever HSBC SVNS 3 try and the new competition’s first-ever hat-trick as Poland eased to a confidence-boosting 31-5 win over Colombia in the game’s opening match.
In their final outing, they recovered from their second-game defeat to Argentina to give themselves a chance of reaching the all-important semi-finals with a 31-5 win over Samoa, a rerun of the scoreline from their opening round outing to finish second in Pool B.
Colombia survived a late goal-line scare to beat physical Samoa 21-14, Leidy Soto scoring two of the South Americans’ tries, while Lutia Col Aumua got the Pacific Islanders back into the reckoning with a sensational breakaway score right from a restart.