BlitzBoks edge Australia for another title

DAY TWO WRAP: The impressive JC Pretorius scored the winning try for the Springbok Sevens to defeat Australia 10-7 in a thrilling World Rugby Sevens Series final in Dubai on Saturday.

This hard-fought win means a second Sevens tournament victory in as many weeks for the BlitzBoks at their favourite desert hunting ground, where they also achieved a rare feat of three tournament wins in a row.

Australia took the fight to the Blitzboks and they led 7-5 at half-time after Dietrich Roache had converted their sole try scored by Corey Toole.

Siviwe Soyizwapi, the inspirational BlitzBoks skipper, maintained his prolific form by scoring his team’s try early in the match, which was unconverted and meant Australia had a slender two-point lead at half-time.

The second stanza was a very tense affair and the BlitzBoks were forced into many errors, however, their defensive work kept them in the game and it was no surprise when Ronald Brown won another turnover to turn defence into a lethal attack.

The strong running Pretorius broke the Aussie resistance with a powerful surge, which set him up for the winning try.

South Africa stretched their impressive winning run to 24 matches on their way to ninth overall title success in Dubai.

Bronze Final

Argentina made it two men’s bronze medals in two weeks as their two speedsters - Marcos Moneta and Luciano Gonzalez - led them to a 38-21 victory over France.

Gonzalez burst through to score the opening try of the game which was converted by Felipe Del Mestre.

Moneta then kicked through and scored out wide himself, but another young talent Nelson Epee then got France on the board and when William Iraguha converted it was 12-7.

And Moneta then used the kicking tactic again to score his second try, Del Mestre converting to make it 19-7 at half-time.

Gonzalez scored his second try a minute into the second half and it was 24-7 to Argentina.

They seemed on easy street, but then Moneta was yellow carded and tries for France from Rayan Rebbadj and Joachim Trouabal, both converted, made it 24-21.

However, Moneta had his say again with his third try and then skipper Santiago Alvarez finished things off.

Semifinals

In the men’s semifinals, Australia stole the show with a superb showing of pace and power.

They swatted aside the challenge of Argentina 40-0 with Corey Toole, Henry Paterson, Josh Turner (2), Dietrich Roache and Billy Meakes all crossing for tries.

The second last-four tie was much closer, France and South Africa being tied at 12-12 until a late try from JC Pretorius, converted by Ronald Brown, gave the latter a 19-12 triumph and put them into another final.

Great Britain defeated Kenya in the fifth place play-off to end up in that spot while USA were seventh. Fiji finished ninth after defeating Spain 31-7 in that play-off and Japan finished 11th.

Quarterfinals

In the men’s Cup quarterfinals the biggest win came from France.

In the third last eight tie they played some great rugby to see off last week’s runners-up USA.

Nelson Epee was the man of the moment with three tries while Rayan Rebbadj also went over and the scores were all converted in a 28-12 triumph.

In the earlier quarterfinals, Ben Dowling, Corey Toole and Henry Paterson scored tries as Australia defeated Ireland 24-12 and two tries from Luciano Gonzalez led a rampant Argentina to a 33-12 win over Great Britain.

South Africa were pushed pretty hard by Kenya before they progressed from the fourth and final quarter-final.

Zane Davids, Siviwe Soyizwapi, Ronald Brown, Christie Grobbelaar and Shaun Williams were the South African try scorers in a 31-19 victory.

Day Two results:

Cup quarterfinals:

Australia 24-12 Ireland

Argentina 33-12 Great Britain

USA 12-28 France

South Africa 31-19 Kenya

Ninth-place semifinals

Fiji 33-19 Canada

Spain 31-7 Japan

Fifth-place semifinals

Ireland 19-24 Great Britain

USA 0-29 Kenya

Cup semifinals:

Australia 40-0 Argentina

France 12-19 South Africa

Eleventh-place Final: Canada 12-21 Japan

Ninth-place Final: Fiji 31-7 Spain

Seventh-place Final: Ireland 19-26 USA

Fifth-place Final: Great Britain 10-5 Kenya

Bronze-medal Final: Argentina 38-21 France

Cup Final: Australia 7-10 South Africa

Source: @WorldRugby & SA Rugby