Blitzboks defeat Argentina to claim top honours at Malaga Sevens

Selvyn Davids scored a dramatic try deep into extra time as SA defeated Argentina 24-17 to claim the inaugural Malaga Sevens competition on Sunday.

In the process, the Blitzboks continued their dominance of the HSBC World Series with a fifth straight tournament victory and extended their winning run to an incredible 29 matches.

The victory was sweet revenge for the Blitzboks, who were stunned by the less fancied Argentinianss in the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympic Games last year.

There was no Fiji or New Zealand at the tournament, but that should not detract from the performance of the side under coach Neil Powell as they continue to beat all-comers.

“We have come a long way as a team and it all starts back in Stellenbosch [at their training base]. We knew it would be tough, we gave it our all and stuck to the gameplan,” Davids said.

Argentina hit the front when Rodrigo Isgro skipped past two challenges and crossed for an excellent try. Isgro thought he was in for another but the play was called back for a forward pass and SA won a reprieve.

But the Blitzboks took the lead with the final play of the first half as they steadily worked their way up the pitch before Davids took a quick penalty to score under the posts.

The lead was extended within a minute of the restart as Impi Visser floated a superb long pass to JC Pretorius in acres of space on the wing and he coasted in to score in the corner. The move was started by a brilliant steal from Zain Davids.

But Argentina struck back as Joaquin de la Vega crossed the try line to level the scores and then stunned the South Africans with another immediately from the kickoff. Justin Geduld missed the ball and the Argentinian streaked away to score. 

Geduld made up for that error with a score of his own in the corner a minute from the end, before Davids sealed the win with a trademark break and his incredible pace that had the Argentina defence grasping.