Blitzboks claim fifth Dubai Sevens title with win over Argentina

Selvyn Davids pulled the strings as defending champions South Africa beat Argentina 12-7 in a thumping encounter.

Impi Visser had already crossed for the Blitzboks when Shilton van Wyk, player of the final in 2022, went over in the fifth minute to take the score to 12-0.

Argentina's Mathias Osadczuk cut the deficit to five points early in the second half, after Ryan Oosthuizen was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle.

Rosko Specman came within inches of a spectacular score, but lost the ball - and ploughed into a steward - in the corner, as South Africa held off the Argentinian fightback.

With the series heading to South Africa next week, their run to the title in Dubai could not have come at a better time. Fans will be hoping they can go back to back in Cape Town next weekend.

South Africa's acting head coach Philip Snyman hailed his squad's, 'amazing performances throughout the weekend'.

"We said we wanted to leave everything on the field," said Snyman.

"It doesn't matter what happens with the result - we want to look each other in the eye and have smiles on our faces. Even with the yellow card tonight, they really played each other, they played for their jersey and they restored the pride in the Springbok 7s jersey."

Winning difficult matches is a defining characteristic of champions - and South Africa set up a shot at a fifth straight title with a high-intensity 14-7 win over Fiji in the last four.

The defending Dubai 7s champions had kicked off finals day - after that remarkable comeback win over New Zealand on Day One - with a comfortable 24-7 quarter-final win over Australia.

"We told ourselves that yesterday didn™t count," Davids said after that opening victory.

"We didn't achieve anything. We knew that the first game of day two was the most difficult one and the most important one."

Via svns.com

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