Fabian Juries was the two-try hero as South Africa ended New Zealand’s unbeaten 47-match streak by winning the final of the IRB Adelaide World Series Sevens 15-7 on Sunday.
The South Africans, beaten 26-12 by New Zealand in last weekend’s Hong Kong Sevens, turned the tables with the flying Juries scoring two of his team’s three tries to topple the runaway series leaders, who were bidding for eight back-to-back sevens tournaments.
The victory is only South Africa’s sixth against New Zealand in almost 10 years and the first since Dubai in 2006.
PHOTO :AP
The title lifted South Africa to 92 points in the world series standings, 34 points behind New Zealand (126) with two legs left — in London on May 24 and May 25 and Edinburgh on May 31 and June 1.
New Zealand now need just seven points from the Twickenham event in London to tie up their series defense.
“We were playing against the team setting the standard,” South Africa coach Paul Treu said.
“They’re going to win the series and credit to them but credit to our players too,” he said.
“Last week [in Hong Kong] we made too many mistakes and we set goals for them not to beat us through our mistakes and not to beat us through lack of passion and commitment and we achieved that,” Treu said.
“We wanted to finish in the top three this season. It seems like we’re going to finish second. We wanted to win two tournaments. We’re on our way to doing that,” he said.
South Africa took an early 10-0 lead with two unconverted tries from Robert Ebersohn and Juries, but had to withstand a determined second-half fightback from the New Zealand team.
Powerhouse Victor Vito muscled his way over for a converted try shortly after halftime to make the score 10-7 and put the Kiwis within range of salvaging the final.
But Juries, the player of the tournament, settled the issue with his second try to bring off the mighty upset.
South Africa reached the final with a 19-5 win over Kenya in the quarter-finals and knocked over Samoa 17-12 in the semi-final.
New Zealand had a struggle to reach the final, needing a late Zar Lawrence try to overcome last year’s Adelaide champions Fiji 17-14 in the semi-finals and relying on another late try by skipper DJ Forbes to edge out Tonga 19-14 in the quarter-finals.
The South Africans showed more verve and pace in the final, often catching out the Kiwis with swift ball movement and superior pace.
Tonga won the Plate final, beating Kenya 14-12, while Argentina downed the US 26-21 in the Bowl final.
Wales won the Shield final, defeating Canada 12-7.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
RSS