South Africa won the final against Argentina 29-14 and move to the top of the HSBC Sevens standings alongside with Fiji.
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South Africa lost 14-12 to Kenya in their second game of the day but secured a place in Sunday’s business end of the tournament when they beat England 10-0 in the last match of Saturday’s extensive programme of 16 group matches.
Fiji took out the Plate Final after a 29-19 win over the USA.
In the final the Blitzboks came from 7-0 behind to win 29-14 thanks to tries from Rosko Specman (2), Seabelo Senatla (2) and Ryno Benjamin against a Los Pumas side appearing in their first final since the 2009 USA Sevens in San Diego.
“My personal view is that once they’ve seen rugby at the Olympics and they’ve talked to some players who went there will be a lot more interest in it in 2019 than there was in 2016”.
More than 106,000 fans witnessed the action across the weekend with the 54,000 fans in attendance on Sunday being treated to an unfamiliar semifinal line-up as the Blitz Bokke were joined by Argentina, France and Kenya. “I am proud of the way the team responded to the pressures and expectations from a fantastic home crowd”, Powell said. It will be England’s first appearance in that competition since the 2013 Port Elizabeth Sevens, after suffering defeat to South Africa and drawing to Kenya 19-19 in their opening match.
After Specman had put South Africa further ahead, Axel Muller shrugged off two tackles to pull one back for Argentina and make it 17-14 at halftime.
“In the past two tournaments we have only been beaten by those sides that occupied the top four slots in the World Series last season – Fiji, South Africa and England – and we’re under no illusion at the improvement we have to make”.
France pipped Kenya to third place, winning the playoff 28-26, having knocked out world series champion Fiji in the quarter-finals.
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New Zealand Rugby isn’t panicking about its Olympic sevens medal prospects despite a sluggish start to both the men’s and women’s world series.
