The USA Eagles fell just short of securing their second straight podium finish in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series after falling to Fiji 28-24 in the bronze-medal match on Sunday in Vancouver.

The Eagles impressed early in the tournament by capping a three-game sweep of pool play with a 29-5 win over Australia. The USA then edged Argentina by two points in a hard-fought quarterfinal victory, before facing series favorite South Africa in a rematch of last week's Las Vegas semifinal.

Once again, the Blitzboks found a way to squeak past the Eagles with a 14-10 win. The USA had a last-second chance to pull out the victory when Andrew Durutalo surged past the line as time expired but he was unable to down the ball.



Had that last play gone differently, it would have marked the first win for the Eagles against South Africa since the 2015 Dubai Sevens. Instead, the USA settled for fourth place overall in Vancouver after another tough loss to a hungry Fijian team, which had fallen to eventual champion England 40-7 in the semifinals.

England's squad set fire to the pitch all weekend long and foiled the South Africans for the second time this year in a final with a convincing 19-7 win on Sunday. England has been the only team that  has bested the Blitzboks in 2017, and now you can make that three losses along with a draw in pool play.



With the title victory, England climbed to second place in the standings and now trails front-runner South Africa by 23 points. The question going forward is can England capitalize on its momentum and continue to dig into the Blitzboks' lead with four series stops remaining?