WELLINGTON — Three late tries, one after the final hooter, saw New Zealand fight back to beat South Africa 24-21 in the final of the Wellington Sevens, the third leg of the World Sevens Series yesterday.

It was New Zealand’s first win on the 2015-16 circuit and saw them move up to third on the table behind South Africa and Fiji as interest in sevens heightens ahead of its Olympic debut this year.

New Zealand beat Kenya 33-0 in Sunday’s quarter-finals and England 22-5 in the semi-finals while South Africa defeated Australia 26-14 and Fiji 31-0.

But things were not going New Zealand’s way in the final from the moment All Blacks superstar Sonny Bill Williams fumbled the opening kick-off, giving South Africa a long early possession. That led to tries by Philip Snyman and Rosco Speckman, which gave South Africa a 14-0 lead after five minutes.

New Zealand were over-anxious with their few scraps of possession but they managed to compose themselves to score a vital try through Akira Ioane just before half-time.

South Africa extended the lead to 21-7 when Seabelo Senatia scored the opening try of the second half.

New Zealand continued to look hasty and short on combinations, but the match turned in their favour when Speckman was sin-binned in the seventh minute of the second half. Ioane scored twice in his absence and New Zealand dragged themselves back in the game to 21-19.

Regan Ware then made two vital plays in the dying moments of the match, first making a tackle deep in his own half to stop a seemingly certain South African try, then keeping the ball alive near the South Africa goal line to create the last chance for Joe Webber. It was a case of deja vu, as Webber had also scored in extra time in a pool match to give New Zealand a win over South Africa.

Captain Tim Mikkelson attributed the determination not to give up when down by 14 points in the second half to a pep talk from 15s World Cup-winning All Black Liam Messam.

“We talked all week that we needed a lot of heart, a lot of ticker. Liam Messam talked about putting the mana (pride) back in the jersey after the last couple of tournaments and that’s what we wanted to do,” said Mikkelson.

“We put ourselves under pressure but we knew if we could get the ball in hand and keep it we could win.”

New Zealand came into their home tournament in seventh place on the World Series standings after being ravaged by injuries in the first two tournaments at Dubai and Cape Town. Yesterday’s win thrust them back into series contention but, more importantly, restated their challenge to South Africa and Fiji for the gold medal at this year’s Olympics.

South Africa leads the series standings by two points from Fiji, which beat England 24-12 in the third-place play-off.

The series now moves to Sydney next weekend. AGENCIES