Dubai: South Africa launched a magnificent comeback to defeat New Zealand 31-12 in monsoon-type conditions and win the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens for the first time since 2003.
The men in black led 12-0 at the turnaround but South Africa then stepped up several gears to claim five unanswered tries for a remarkable success with Tobela Mdaka touching down twice.
These sevens will be remembered for a long time, not least because the usually pristine Dubai Exiles pitches were reduced to swamps in place because of treacherous rain.
Players battled to hold their footing in many areas of the main pitch, while there was enough water on the surface in places for players to be at risk of drowning at the bottom of a ruck.
But South Africa held their nerve, refusing to panic after a disappointing first period in which Edwin Cocker and Nigel Hunt put New Zealand's young squad in control.
Different story
New Zealand even survived the first half sin binning of Hunt for a comment to referee David Keane without conceding a point.
But the second half was a different story. Mdaka polished off a superb long break by Philip Burger for his first score while Kabamba Floors polished off a crossfield move for South Africa's second try.
Paul Treu's side claimed the restart and charged straight downfield for Mdaka to touch down under the posts, while further scores from Danwel Demas and Stefan Basson rounded off a game of two very different halves.
New Zealand, defeated in their last four semifinals against Fiji, this time emerged 17-12 in front to qualify with tries from Cocker, Lote Raikabula and Zar Lawrence.
South Africa had earlier booked their passage with a 19-0 defeat of England, who were far from happy over a high tackle on Dave Strettle, which went unpunished as their bid for a third straight title fizzled out.
Breathing space
Coach Mike Friday said: "It was late with intent and at the minimum deserved a yellow card, maybe even a red. If the referee had made the right decision there we would have had a numerical advantage and could have kicked on."
He added: "I'm disappointed. I thought we started very well but we could not score in the first five minutes while their first try, just before the break, gave them a real breathing space."
Samoa ended on a high, overcoming France 26-7 in the plate final with Mikaele Pesamino (2), Fautua Otto and Lia Palala crossing. And Argentina, who finished sixth in last season's world series, ended with the consolation prize of the bowl, downing Zimbabwe 26-7 with tries from Francisco Merello (2), Martin Rodriguez and Nicolas Bruzzone.
The Arabian Gulf, meanwhile, showed real heart to bounce back from three heavy defeats on the first day to stun Kenya 12-7 in the shield semifinals, thanks to tries from Dushan Raveendrakumar (Dragons) and star performer Francois Coetzer (Exiles).
That put the home favourites into a final against Wales, who had too much pace and power in a 33-0 success, Tom James claiming a hat-trick of tries.
