Dubai: South Africa equalled New Zealand’s most-wins record of six victories in Dubai by beating the All Blacks 24-12 in the final of the season-opening Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens on Saturday.
New Zealand’s Joe Ravouvou was sin-binned early on for a dangerous tackle, and South Africa immediately took advantage with three quick tries from Philip Snyman, Seabelo Senatla, Kwagga Smith.
Branco du Preez only missed the second of three conversions to make it 19-0 to South Africa at half-time.
Andrew Knewstubb and Scott Curry then pulled two back for New Zealand in the second half, with Knewstubb only managing to convert the first.
But then with the seconds ticking down, South Africa’s Tim Agaba got the try to put it all beyond doubt.
With this triumph the Blitzboks not only retained their Dubai title but also made it three wins here in the past four years, to truly cement their dominance over the tournament, which has previously seen them win in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2014 and 2016.
It also got their World Series title defence off to the best possible start in a year where they will be busy defending their Commonwealth Games gold medal in Australia in April, before attempting to get their hands on the World Cup for the first time, three months later in America.
They now move on to the second stage of the 10-stage World Series in Cape Town next weekend, where they will hope to follow up this success in front of their own fans.
Neil Powell’s side had got this far by topping Pool A with victories over Uganda 19-10, Kenya 48-5 and Canada 28-0 on Friday, before beating Samoa 26-10 in the quarters and Olympic champions Fiji 12-7 in the semi-final on Saturday.
It carries on from great form last year where they won five of the season’s 10 stages, with their last victory being in France in May, to secure only their second World Series since first doing it in 2008/09.
New Zealand, meanwhile, had got this far by finishing top of Pool D by beating Samoa 24-12, Argentina 21-19 and the USA 22-12 on Friday, before overcoming a scare to beat Kenya 14-12 in the quarters and England 14-5 in the semis.
Elsewhere, England beat Fiji 28-21 in the third-place play-off, Australia saw off Samoa 22-17 to finish fifth, France overcame Spain 21-12 to secure the trophy and Wales toppled Uganda 26-7 to finish 13th.
