South Africa thrashed the New Zealand Sevens team at the Vegas leg of the USA Sevens at Sam Boyd Stadium on Sunday. Following some of the most exciting playoff games we’ve seen in Sevens history, the 40-21 blowout final took everyone by surprise.
An experienced Kiwi side were no match for the speed and precision that the South African’s played with early on in the final, with the score at an incredible 35-0 at one stage.
The men in black came back late in the game through some powerful play by Ben Lam in particular, but it was effectively over already and South Africa celebrated their first title of the year, cementing their second placing on the overall world series standings.
“It was just a tremendous fight from the boys. We said after what happened last week, that we never going to forget that,” said an emotional Paul Delport post match.
“We set such a high standards for ourselves, we need to come out and perform like that every time. This is huge for us. We put in so much effort back home – there are just no words to describe this winning feeling,” Delport added.
Despite the loss, New Zealand increased their overall lead on the points table, claiming 23 points to site on top at 96, while South Africa trail on 73, followed by Samoa on 71.
Samoa won an exciting third place playoff game againt Fiji 36-31, while Canada claimed the Plate, France won the Bowl, and Australia won the Shield.
There are four rounds still to go, starting with Hong Kong from 22-24 March.
Below are highlights of the final day’s play as well as Day Two (the second video in the playlist).
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