Argentina defended their Canada Sevens title in Vancouver on Sunday, defeating France 33-21 in the final to close the gap on New Zealand at the top of the World Rugby Sevens Series standings.

The Argentinians, beaten in the final of the Los Angeles Sevens last week, prevailed in a hard-fought final with late tries from Tobias Wade and Agustin Fraga to finally break French hearts.

France, aiming to win their first tournament on the world sevens circuit since the 2005 Paris Sevens, got off to a disastrous start when playmaker Stephen Parez threw a loose pass that was intercepted by Marcos Moneta for an Argentina try under the posts.

But the French responded superbly with a flowing 28-pass move that ended with Jean Pascal Barraque feeding Theo Forner who scored under the posts to level the final at 7-7.

Argentina responded swiftly though with a well-worked converted try from Rodrigo Isgro that made it 14-7. Again however France hit back on the stroke of half-time with Varian Pasquet diving over in the corner.

Barraque slotted a brilliant conversion from the touchline to make it 14-14 at the break.

France then took the lead for the first time with another clever try, this time Parez getting on the end of a sweeping move to take the score to 21-14.

Argentina however responded ruthlessly with trys from Matias Osadczuk, Wade and Fraga to seal victory.

Argentina’s victory sees them move to within 12 points of New Zealand at the top of the World Rugby Sevens Series standings as the circuit heads to Asia for the Hong Kong Sevens on March 31.

Collated Weekend Results

Umoja 74-62 Kisumu Lakeside- MP

Ulinzi Warriors 50-28 Zetech Titans- MP

Strathmore Blades 53-52 UON Terror – MP

Equity Hawks 79- 37 ANU Panthers- WP