HONG KONG — South Africa broke its title drought within the Hong Kong Sevens when it received the ultimate from defending champion Argentina 35-7 on Sunday.

The Blitzboks got here to Hong Kong’s fiftieth anniversary as the favourite having received the final three stops within the sevens world sequence. However it additionally carried baggage from by no means having received Hong Kong and shedding the ultimate of the crown jewel of sevens rugby in 1997, 2008, 2009 and 2017.

“We broke the hoodoo and may lastly name ourselves champions,” captain Impi Visser stated.

In the meantime, the New Zealand ladies claimed their fourth consecutive Hong Kong title after successful an inevitable last in opposition to Australia 19-14.

Hong Kong’s most profitable males’s groups, Fiji and New Zealand, shut out South Africa, however the Blitzboks dominated New Zealand 26-14 within the semifinals and Argentina knocked out Fiji 24-17 within the quarterfinals.

Within the last, the Blitzboks scored after 38 seconds when Tristan Leyds punted from inside his 22 down the center, collected the ball and raced between the posts.

Argentina, which misplaced to South Africa 38-0 in pool play on Saturday, leveled when Santino Zangara took Luciano Gonzalez’s offload.

However the remainder of the ultimate was all South Africa. Leyds took a kick cross from Selvyn Davids in his personal half and went on a mazy run to feed Davids in assist. Davids acquired a second attempt, Shilton van Wyk scored from a Leyds chip and Ryan Oosthuizen additionally touched down.

Much more dominant this season than the Blitzboks has been the New Zealand ladies’s group.

They’ve received 5 of the six stops within the sequence, contesting each last with Australia. They’re even higher in Hong Kong, having received all three earlier ladies’s championships.

“We love these finals,” New Zealand’s Jorja Miller stated. “These are the moments we play for.”

Mahina Paul, on her twenty fifth birthday, acquired New Zealand rolling by slipping outdoors Kahli Henwood for the opening attempt. Miller scored her ninth attempt of the weekend in assist of a Manaia Nuku break for 14-0.

Co-captain Bella Nasser completed her personal break and Australia trailed solely 14-7 at halftime. However Australia misplaced Teagan Levi to the sin-bin from the second half restart when she took out Miller within the air.

Moments later, Nuku was denied a attempt in an awesome sort out by Heidi Dennis however New Zealand used a ruck penalty to ship Kelsey Teneti clear for a decisive 19-7 lead.

The final 5 minutes have been all protection and Australia could not crack New Zealand till there have been seconds left when Maddison Levi scored her seventh attempt of the weekend.

Levi handed Portia Woodman-Wickliffe’s 256 all-time profession tries and completed Hong Kong on 260, trailing solely Michaela Brake’s 287. Brake had her first child, a son, final month.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby