The Springbok Women's Sevens finished the opening tournament of HSBC SVNS 2, played in Nairobi in Kenya, in second place on the log, setting them up well for the final two tournaments to be played in South America next month.
South Africa won both their matches on Sunday, building good momentum for the final two legs, in Uruguay and Brazil, where the top four sides will have a chance to play in the top-tier HSBC SVNS Rugby Championship.
A commanding 33-5 bonus-point win over China in their opening match on the final day meant that the winner of the clash against Argentina later in the afternoon would determine the winner of the event, one of three to be played in the HSBV SVNS 2 series.
South Africa edged Argentina, who had won all four of their previous matches, in sudden death to claim the bragging rights, but the losing bonus point gained by the South Americans confirmed their status as the top-ranked side in the tournament, with South Africa second, one log point behind.
The South Americans finished the tournament with 13 log points, the Bok Women are second on 12, followed by Spain (11 points), China (6), Kenya (6) and Brazil, who beat South Africa on Saturday, in sixth place with four points.
The match against Argentina was not only the last match for both teams, but also the unofficial final of the tournament, as the two teams topped the log going into the match.
Argentina scored first for a 7-0 lead after a couple of weak tackles by the Bok Women, but a great try by Maria Tshiremba, converted by Nadine Roos, levelled the scores immediately.
The South Americans kicked the ball deep from the restart. Tshiremba saw a gap and off she went to score, 97m downfield at the other side of the pitch. Nadine Roos converted to make it 7-7, which turned out to be the halftime score as well.
The second half was a bit of a mixed bag for South Africa, who created numerous opportunities, but handling errors robbed them of converting those into points.
Instead, it was Argentina who scored to take the lead again and it took a mighty effort by the South Africans to even the scores up in the final play of the match, when Patience Mokone dotted down, but unfortunately Roos pulled the potential match-winning conversion.
With scores tied, extra time was called and in the final minute of that five-minute half, Tshiremba again raced away to score the winner.
In the earlier match against China, the South Africans’ attack was just too slick and their defence too dominant for their opponents. They scored five unanswered tries before the Chinese got a late consolation try.
Tshiremba was too quick for the defence after three minutes to dot down and that was followed by Ayanda Malinga two minutes later.
Shannon-Lee Windvogel scored her first try in her first tournament just before the break, handing the Bok Women a 21-0 lead at the break.
Windvogel added a second just after the restart and Mokone also finished a good attack before the last Chinese try.
Scorers:
South Africa 17 (7), Argentina 12 (7)
SA – Tries: Maria Tshiremba (2), Patience Mokone. Conversion: Nadine Roos.
Argentina – Tries: Marianela Escalante, Sofia Gonzalez.
South Africa 33 (21), China 5 (0)
SA – Tries: Maria Tshiremba, Ayanda Malinga, Shannon-Lee Windvogel (2), Patience Mokone. Conversions: Nadine Roos (4).
China – Try: Qian Xin.