England came agonisingly close to winning the Emirates Dubai Sevens on Saturday and making the perfect start to this year's Sevens World Series, but South Africa thwarted them with a breakaway try against the run of play in the closing moments of the tournament to take the final 19-12.

Fate was smiling on the Springboks. Trailing 7-0 with less than ten seconds remaining in a scrappy semi-final against Fiji, they stole the ball from a lineout and Vuyo Zangqa scored the try that Mzwandile Stick calmly converted. Stick then won the match in extra time with a dropped goal from the halfway line.

Against England it was almost as tense. South Africa scored twice in the first half, but England played positively after the break and Tom Biggs pulled one try back, running the width of the field before curling in at the left corner.

Four minutes later, Paul Delport was sent to the sin-bin for persistently coming off his feet at the ruck and England used the extra-man advantage to barge through and level the scores. A fight broke out in the in-goal area as Mickey Young grounded the ball and it took the diplomatic skills of James Fitzgerald, the assistant referee but communications officer with the International Cricket Council by day, to calm the teams. England had the momentum and when, with barely a minute remaining, Isoa Damu dumped Stick into touch in the South Africa 22, it looked as if England would score the decisive try. Instead, they lost the ball at a ruck and Gio Aplon broke away before slipping the winning pass to Ryno Benjamin.

Ben Ryan, the England coach, was satisfied, despite disappointment at the final result. “We played some breathtaking rugby at times and have shown there is a definite wind of change in this side,” he said. “In the last minute against South Africa our tails were up.”

Injuries were Ryan's biggest concern. Ben Gollings missed the whole tournament after tearing a calf muscle on the first morning, while in the final Ollie Phillips dislocated an elbow and Uche Oduoza suffered a badly bruised leg.

Ryan added, in a slight dig at the other England team playing on Saturday, that his side were the only England players to have beaten New Zealand at any level in the past five years. As the match at Twickenham was kicking off, England were on their way to winning their sevens semi-final against the All Blacks 21-19.

England scored three converted tries in the first half through Rob Vickerman, Phillips and Josh Drauniniu, but as Biggs looked to add a fourth at the start of the second half, he was tackled hard, lost the ball and New Zealand, as they often do, scored on the counter-attack. Nafi Tuitavake went in for a second try soon after, but it was in the right corner and the missed conversion proved the difference.

Dominant on the tournament's first day, New Zealand were almost victims of a surprising defeat by Kenya in the quarter-final.

The African side led 12-0 after a marvellous piece of inventive play by Gibson Weru Kahuthia, who, when trapped on his own line, threw the ball overhand, American football style, the width of the pitch to a team-mate, who made the break and passed back to Kahuthia for a try. However, New Zealand went on to win 21-17.

England's 15-5 quarter-final win against Argentina was straightforward, with Damu, the Fiji-born soldier who has served with the British Army in Bosnia, touching down, but it was played in strange conditions. As the first half drew to a close, the wind suddenly whipped up, the mercury fell, clouds formed and it began to rain. If it wasn't for sandstorms being rare in southwest London, it would have felt more like Twickenham than the Gulf.

Wales and Scotland's tournaments ended with a whimper. Relegated to the bowl competition after coming third in their pools, Wales were thrashed 24-0 by Portugal in the semi-final, while Scotland lost 19-5 to Zimbabwe and were beaten 17-14 in a consolation match by the United States to leave for the George Sevens in South Africa this weekend with only one win from five matches.

At least there was one Scotsman with a smile on his face. Gregor Townsend, now 35, won the international veterans competition, one of the fringe events being held in Dubai, with his Catherine Nobel Foundation charity side.