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Cape Town - The Blitzboks were stunned by two Scottish tries in the last minute to go down 27-26 in the final of the London Sevens on Sunday.
South Africa had led 26-15 with less than a minute remaining when Scotland, in their first ever Cup final, scored two quick-fire tries through Dougie Fife.
The result was not enough to give South Africa the World Series championship - that honour went to Fiji the second they made it to the tournament playoffs on Saturday - but the win would have been the ideal confidence-booster for Neil Powell and his men ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
It was not to be.
South Africa had beaten Fiji 26-21 earlier in the day in the semi-finals, and were overwhelming favourites in the Cup final.
Seabelo Senatla opened the scoring for the Blitzboks in the first minute after an expert turnover on the ground from Dylan Sage, and it immediately looked like Scotland were facing an uphill battle.
But the underdogs hit back with a try of their own through Jamie Farndale to narrow the gap to 7-5 before they stunned South Africa with a rolling maul that gave them a 10-7 lead towards the end of the first half - Scott Wight finishing off the move.
The score would remain 10-7 at half time, and the Blitzboks needed to be far better in the second period.
They were.
After soaking up some pressure, the Blitzboks finally got their hands on the ball and made it count with a beautifully worked move that saw Rosko Specman score under the posts.
Cecil Afrika scored soon after with an interception to make it 21-10, but a brilliant solo effort from Scotland speedster James Fleming then narrowed the gap to 21-15 going into the final 3 minutes.
South Africa thought they had put the game to bed when an inch-perfect pass from Philip Snyman put Specman through for his second try of the night to make it 26-15.
But Scotland weren't done.
When Fife scored his first try, there were around 10 seconds left on the clock.
The conversion was knocked over in a flash, and Scotland were 26-22 down with time up on the clock.
But when they won the restart, there was a sense that they could pull off something remarkable.
They did just that, and when Fife dived in for his second the comeback was complete as the Scots turned delirious and Blitzboks were left wondering what had just happened.
