Dubai: South Africa swamped Australia 33-7 to claim their fourth Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens title at the Sevens Stadium here on Saturday, and their first one since 2008.
The Blitzbokke took advantage through Kwagga Smith before Branco du Preez converted after Australia went a man down when Pama Fou was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Philip Snyman.
Fou redeemed himself with a try to level the game at 7-7 before half-time after James Stannard converted. But South Africa came out fighting in the second half with two tries from Seabelo Senatla, both converted by Du Preez. Ruhan Nel added a third second half try converted by Cecil Afrika to confirm their first victory since 2008.
Both South Africa and Australia got this far by recording respective shock semi-final wins over record six-time Dubai winners New Zealand and defending champions Fiji.
South Africa stunned New Zealand 28-0 in the semi-finals and beat Argentina 40-0 in the quarter-finals, having earlier topped Pool D with wins over Portugal 36-0, Canada 24-12, Wales 12-5.
Australia, meanwhile, reached their first ever Dubai final after beating Fiji 29-24 in the semi-finals, having earlier overcome Scotland 22-17 in the quarter-finals. The Wallabies had also beaten Kenya 29-12, USA 26-10 and England 12-5 to top Pool C.
Despite their semi-final defeat, Fiji maintained their position at the top of the Sevens World Series, with 26-12 victory over New Zealand in the third place play-off.
The Fijians, who had won the opening round of the nine-stage series at the Gold Coast in October, had topped Pool A with victories over France 54-7, Brazil 36-5 and Argentina 33-21, but lost the lost semi-final to Australia after a 31-17 quarter-final win over Wales.
Elsewhere, Argentina recorded their second successive plate win with a 26-12 victory over Scotland. The Pumas had earlier beaten England 21-19 in the plate semi-final after having lost the cup quarter-final to South Africa. They finished second in Pool A after beating Brazil 17-5 and France 26-21 before losing to Fiji.
Samoa beat France 31-21 in the bowl final. The Samoans, who won the cup here in 2012, suffered a disappointing group stage exit on Friday with defeats to Scotland 21-14 and New Zealand 41-0 either side of a 38-12 win over Japan. But they bounced back by beating Kenya 40-5 in the bowl quarter-final and Portugal 19-14 in the bowl semi-final.
Canada, meanwhile, beat Kenya 19-12 to win the shield final. The Canadians had earlier lost the bowl quarter-final 42-19 to France, before beating Japan 29-14 in the shield semi-final, after having beaten Wales 19-14 and lost to South Africa and Portugal 26-7 in the group.
