London Sevens: Scotland break SA hearts
Scotland trailed by 11 points with a minute remaining in the match before Fife's brace, along with Scott Wight's only conversion of the match broke the BlitzBoks' hearts.
Despite finishing fourth in the leg, Fiji were big winners as they retained their World Sevens Series title by qualifying for the Cup quarterfinals.
USA had to be happy with third place on their return to the place where they secured their first Cup title when they beat Series champions Fiji 26-19. New Zealand left the London Sevens with some silverware as they claimed the Plate Final 29-14 over Argentina.
The Bowl went the way of Wales, who dominated Australia to claim a 24-19 victory while Kenya claimed the Shield trophy when they ran in five tries to beat Russia 31-7.
Cup Final: South Africa 26-27 Scotland
South Africa drew first blood in the opening minutes of the game when they switched the ball across the field and used the width brilliantly. Tim Agaba went on a blistering run down the right hand side before he was brought down. The ball was quickly recycled and sent to the left where Seabelo Senatla was waiting to sprint through for the try.
Cecil Afrika added the easy conversion to take a 7-0 lead.
Scotland hit back almost immediately as they charged up field from the kick-off. A number of phases later and they had an overlap on the left. The numbers proved too much as Jamie Farndale was able to slice through and grab the try. Scott Wight missed the conversion though as the Scots trailed by two points after four minutes of action.
The Scots were enjoying a good spell of possession and Farndale early got his second but he was tackled just seven metres short of the BlitzBoks' try line by Francois Hougaard. The ball went into touch off Hougaard though and the Scots set a driving maul from the line out and rolled their way over the line.
Wight emerging with the ball but failed with the conversion to hand Scotland a 10-7 lead after eight minutes. Scotland held onto the ball for the remainder of the half as they went into the break with the three-point lead.
Scotland held onto the ball for the opening three minutes of the second half but failed to add any points and it was South Africa who grabbed the first points of the half. A set move from a penalty inside their 10 metre line, saw them spread it wide to the speedsters and it was Rosco Specman try who raced through in fourth minute.
Afrika added the extras to hand South Africa a 14-10 lead. That lead was extended to 21-10 a minute later when Afrika picked an interception to run in unopposed. He then slotted his third conversion.
Scotland were not going down without a fight though and hit back with four minutes remaining when James Fleming raced down the line and took Senatla and Afrika with him over the try line. Wight's torrid time with the boot continued as he missed another conversion. Scotland now trailed 15-21.
The try-fest continued as Speckman grabbed his second as South Africa responded from the restart. The speedster ran all of 45 metres to extend the BlitzBoks' lead to 11 points with two minutes remaining.
Dougie Fife grabbed two tries in the final 30 seconds of the match, and Wight finally landed a conversion, to finish off a dramatic finish to the game.
Third place play-off: Fiji 19-26 USA
Fiji were seemingly still in the changing room as the USA caught them cold on two occasions in the opening minutes of the encounter. First, the Fijians dropped the ball for Martin Iosefo to pounce after just 10 seconds and then from the restart the same thing happened, but this time it was Ben Pinkleman who got the try.
The Series champions regrouped and Kitione Taliga got them on the board but the USA came back again through Perry Baker. The Fijians went into the half-time break with the momentum as Taliga popped up for his second of the match to trail USA 14-19.
It took just a minute for Fiji to draw level after Jasa Veremalua handed off Perry Baker before dotting down. Madison Hughes produced a moment of magic when the USA captain chipped ahead and won the race to touch down and convert his try.
That proved to be the final score as the Eagles finished the season with third place in London.
Plate Final: Argentina 14-29 New Zealand
Argentina were first on the board through Javier Rojas but New Zealand's response was swift, Teddy Stanaway dropped off the back of a line-out and then ran to score under the posts. Then, with seconds left in the half, rookie of the year nominee Regan Ware gave the All Blacks a slender 12-5 half-time advantage.
The Ioane brothers are at it early in the second half with Akira shrugging off a tackle before feeding his younger brother Rieko to run in his 10th try of the weekend. Argentina's Axel Muller got his side back in striking distance with a try of his own as the deficit was just three points.
Argentina pushed for another but instead, Gillies Kaka darted through a gap and cantered away under the posts. Pita Ahki put the cherry on top with a fourth try as the All Blacks Sevens avenge their loss to Los Pumas in the Paris quarterfinal last weekend.
Bowl Final: Wales 24-19 Australia
Australia struck first when Henry Hutchison forced a turnover, Pama Fou ran between two defenders and then sent John Porch over on his inside. Wales should have been on the board after a great break from Luke Morgan, but he failed to pass when he should have. Fortunately for him, they got another opportunity and with Frankie Winterstein in the sin-bin, Rhodri Williams forced the ball down to tie the score at 7-all at half-time.
Wales started the second half better, Owen Jenkins made a break before throwing the ball back in the tackle, allowing captain Luke Trehearne to scoop it up and dive over the line. The lead never lasted long though as Tom Kingston sliced through Wales' defence to run in Australia's second.
Wales hit back straight away through Ben Roach and then shortly after, he sent James Benjamin over to punish a knock-on. Australia had the final say with Pama Fou opening up down the left touchline for a consolation score.
Shield Final: Kenya 31-7 Russia
Kenya drew first blood when Willy Ambaka danced his way through the Russian defence for the opening try of the Shield final. Russia's cause wasn't helped by Denis Simplikevich seeing yellow for kicking the ball away and Collins Injera pounced to score another. Nelson Oyoo claimed number three and then it was time for Injera's 235th Series try to put the Africans firmly in control by 26-0 at the break.
The damage may have already been done but Ramil Gaysin couldn't wipe the smile off his face after scoring his first Series try after the playmaker broke through the middle, throwing a dummy to no-one and backing himself to go over. That only woke Kenya up again and Nelson Oyoo grabbed his second to end any hopes of a Russian comeback.
