New Zealand defeated Argentina 38-14 on Sunday to take the Cup Final at the Cape Town Sevens and shoot to first place in the HSBC Sevens World Series standings, while the USA left the series' second leg with a lot more to be happy about than when it arrived in Cape Town.

The All Blacks Sevens made up for their Cup final loss in Dubai last weekend with a clinical display in front of a sold-out Cape Town Stadium. Two tries from HSBC Player of the Final Joe Ravouvou combined with scores from Vilimoni Koroi, Tim Mikkelson, Regan Ware, and Sione Molia to help head coach Clark Laidlaw's side to victory over an Argentina team chasing its first Cup win since San Diego in 2009.

"I'm so proud of how the boys played this weekend and last weekend," New Zealand captain Scott Curry said. "It could have gone either way after we lost our first pool match against USA yesterday but day two is another day. We started fresh and really worked for each other and that’s what won it for us. We’ll look forward to our home tournament in Hamilton coming up soon — it’s a new city and they really love their rugby there."

The result showed just how capricious sevens can be. The USA opened the tournament with a 22-0 shutout of New Zealand in Pool B but lost to Argentina in the quarterfinals, only to see the Pumas outclassed by the Kiwis in the championship game.

Host South Africa was knocked out 19-12 in the Cup semifinal by New Zealand yet finished strongly in third after beating Canada 19-17 in the bronze final. 

New Zealand is now two points clear of South Africa in the overall World Rugby Sevens Series standings. with eight stops remaining. The teams will regroup in Sydney on Jan. 26-28. 

For the USA, day one was a hugely improvement over Dubai, and wins over New Zealand, Australia, and Spain showed the Eagles are back. But day two wasn’t as perfect. The USA had put together an imposing combination of aggressive, physical play led by Danny Barrett and Ben Pinkelman and found success in moving the ball quickly to Carlin Isles on the wing.

But little defensive alignment and execution breakdowns haunted the Eagles on Sunday.

Quarterfinals

Argentina 28, USA 12

Argentina got a bit of a lucky call on a holding-on penalty that set up a try, but there was no debate on the next USA penalty that handed the Pumas a 14-0 lead. The Americans had shown a somewhat troubling habit of falling off tackles on Saturday, and that bugged them even more on Sunday, helping the Pumas to a third try. Stephen Tomasin got one back on a long run, and Folau Niua capped off the USA’s only well-constructed attack, but Argentina replied to win it 28-12.

Other QF Scores

Canada 35, France 7

New Zealand 17, England 12

South Africa 31, Fiji 26

Semifinals

USA 29, France 12

In the fifth-place semifinals, the Eagles took care of France. The French opted to key hard on Isles and did well to bottle him in. But Isles was smart enough to know he was covered and recycled the ball back the other way where Barrett put some embarrassing stiff-arms on his defenders to score himself and to set up Folau Niua for another. Madison Hughes, Isles, and Matai Leuta finished up the 29-12 win.

Other SF Scores

5th Place Semi: Fiji 19, England 12

Cup Semi: Argentina 14, Canada 12

Cup Semi: New Zealand 19, South Africa 12

The USA’s final game was in the fifth-place final (the old Plate Final) against Fiji, and the Eagles just didn't tackle well. They failed to contain the Fijian power runners, who stood strong in the tackle and offloaded. The USA still tried to play wide to either Isles or Barrett, but the moves were becoming a little too easy to read. Fiji 26, USA 12.

Final Placements:

1st: New Zealand 38, Argentina 14

3rd: South Africa 19, Canada 17

5th: Fiji 26, USA 12

7th: France, England

9th: Australia 26, Spain 7

11th: Samoa, Wales

13th: Kenya 24 Uganda 14

15th: Russia, Scotland

Overall, the sixth-place result in Cape Town was an improvement for the USA but not a strong ending. Folau Niua continued to provide consistent play on both sides of the ball and made some crucial defensive stops, but the USA tackling needs to be better.