Blitzboks complete five-peat in Dubai

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The Blitzboks withstood a second-half onslaught from Argentina to claim a historic fifth consecutive Dubai Sevens tournament victory on Sunday evening.

Tries from Impi Visser and Shilton van Wyk proved enough for South Africa to successfully defend their Dubai Sevens title for a fifth time with a 12-7 victory over Argentina.

The win sees the Blitzboks tie Fiji for most consecutive cup titles in one location (five) and New Zealand for most titles in one location (11). It is South Africa’s first tournament triumph since last season’s Dubai Sevens.

It was a tough encounter against an Argentina side desperate to scalp the Blitzboks for the first time in a tournament final.

As has been the pattern in their playoff run in the desert, South Africa flew into a 12-0 lead early on, but came under serious pressure towards the end of the first half.

That pressure told early in the second half when Argentina got themselves on the board through Matias Osadczuk, after Ryan Oosthuizen was yellow carded for a high tackle.

The Blitzboks fired back when Oosthuizen returned and so nearly got what would have surely been a winning try, only for Rosko Specman’s spectacular finish in the corner to be ruled out by the TMO for a knock-on.

However, the defending champions still managed to see off one last attack from the Argentinians and keep their crown as kings of the desert.

Top of the table with 22 points, the Blitzboks will travel to Cape Town for the home leg of the series next weekend.

Photo: Gallo Images

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