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South Africa recovered from a 19-point first half deficit to defeat Fiji in the Cup Final of the Los Angeles Sevens. It was a match that will go down as an instant classic on the World Sevens Series, the Blitzboks finally getting the win thanks to a Sakoyisa Makata try on golden point in extra time.
Earlier in the day the South Africans had produced a similar effort to defeat the home favorites USA in the Quarter Finals. Two tries from Carlin Isles gave the Eagles a 10-5 lead at halftime, but a late try to JC Pretorius tied the game with Selvyn Davids adding the game-winning conversion.
It’s the second win of the season for South Africa, and first since the opening stop at Dubai. They have closed the gap on series leaders New Zealand to just four points with five of ten tournaments completed.
The USA would settle for 5th place, as they won their remaining matches in the tournament. A comprehensive 24-5 win over France in their second match led them to the 5th place Final opposite Ireland. The Eagles ran out to a 19-0 lead only to see the score tied before a late try from Danny Barrett sealed the victory.
Canada and Argentina would square off in an all-Americas 9th place Final. Los Pumas just edged the result with Santiago Mare’s conversion of a Matías Osadczuk try in stoppage time proving the difference. Teenage flyer Marcos Moneta scored his 7th try of the tournament, remarkably scoring in all six games for the South Americans.
Both sides had earlier won their first two games of the consolation draw. Argentina crushed Wales and had little trouble with Samoa, while the Canadians beat Scotland and Spain by identical scores of 24-7.
Despite their 5th place result, the strong form of Australia sees the USA falling one spot to 7th overall. Argentina and Canada show no change in ranking at 8th and 10th respectively.
The second stop on the North American leg takes place next weekend in Vancouver.
DAY TWO RESULTS
9th PLACE QUARTER FINALS
Argentina 31 – 5 Wales
Samoa 28 – 19 Kenya
Spain 26 – 0 South Korea
Canada 24 – 7 Scotland
CUP QUARTER FINALS
Fiji 26 – 5 England
Australia 36 – 0 Ireland
New Zealand 29 – 14 France
South Africa 12 – 10 USA
13th PLACE SEMI FINALS
Wales 5 – 29 Kenya
South Korea 5 – 45 Scotland
9th PLACE SEMI FINALS
Argentina 28 – 12 Samoa
Spain 7 – 24 Canada
5th PLACE SEMI FINALS
England 7 – 26 Ireland
France 5 – 24 USA
CUP SEMI FINALS
Fiji 43 – 7 Australia
New Zealand 0 – 17 South Africa
13th PLACE FINAL
Kenya 24 – 29 Scotland
9th PLACE FINAL
Argentina 21 – 19 Canada
5th PLACE FINAL
Ireland 19 – 24 USA
BRONZE FINAL
Australia 19 – 21 New Zealand
CUP FINAL
Fiji 24 – 29 South Africa
