South Africa win third successive home Sevens title

Defending champions South Africa defeated Argentina 29-14 on Sunday to win the Cape Town Sevens for a third successive triumph at their home event.

Argentina, playing in a sevens final for the first time since 2009, had knocked out New Zealand and surprise of the weekend Kenya in the last-eight and semi-finals respectively, and they were ahead in the final.

German Schulz went over from a smart lay-off from Fernando Luna and the conversion gave Argentina a 7-0 lead.

Rosko Speckman cut the deficit to 7-5 and by the break the hosts were 17-14 to the good after tries from Seabelo Senatla and a second for Speckman.

The South Americans kept in touch through Axel Muller scoring beneath the posts.

South Africa sprinted away in the second period with Senatla also grabbing his second try before Ryno Benjamin went under the posts after fine work from Cheslin Kolbe in the dying moments.
"The guys decided after yesterday to pull together and start playing rugby," said South Africa coach Neil Powell whose team had been shocked 14-12 by Kenya in pool play on Saturday.

"I'm really proud of them today. You have to work for everything, nothing is given to us and Argentina put us under lots of pressure."

South Africa had also won the 2013 and 2014 titles when the event was staged in Port Elizabeth.

"The way the anthem was sung and the noise they made when we had our first line-break was just incredible. That really lifted us," said South Africa skipper Kyle Brown.

France, beaten by the hosts 21-12 in the semis, took third place with a 28-26 win over Kenya.

The French had also accounted for world champions Fiji, last week's winners in Dubai's season-opener, 17-14 in the quarter-finals.

The third round of the world series takes place in Wellington from January 30.
Source: AFP