Rugby sevens captains were bowled over by the support shown to them from cricket fans in Cape Town last night.

The 16 team captains appeared at the famous Newlands cricket ground during a break in play at the annual Springboks v Proteas (South African cricket team) charity match.

Captains posed for photos before bowling against the Proteas and each other, to the delight of the thousands gathered in Newlands.

It was an interesting experience for USA captain Perry Baker who hasn’t spent much time with the bat and ball in the past.

“It was pretty good! I was just telling the guys – I really want to get involved in it now!”

“We’re really relaxed going into the tournament this week, we’ve been taking it easy after Dubai and this was a cool thing to do to get away from rugby.”

It was also nice break from the day job for New Zealand skipper Scott Curry.

“It was a bit different to get out and bowl” he said, smiling, as he left Newlands. “As a Kiwi growing up playing a bit of cricket in the summertime, it was awesome to get out in the middle. It’s great to see Newlands and the Proteas versus the Springboks is a great idea.”

In the end the Proteas beat the Springboks, winning by 16 runs.

Afterwards, the focus returned to the oval ball this weekend as the sold-out Cape Town stadium gets set to host the second round of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

French captain Terry Bouhraoua said his side are in good form ahead of Cape Town.

“I hope that this weekend is better than last weekend, where we finished in seventh spot (in Dubai). We have Kenya, Japan and Fiji so we’ll make sure our focus is on the first day.

“We want to be a big team that is hard to beat this season and we continue to work hard to make sure we’re there.”