New Zealand will meet England in the final of the Wellington Sevens rugby tournament, with the hosts beating world series leaders South Africa 17-7 in a tense semi-final.

A late try to 17-year-old Rieko Ioane sealed victory in a repeat of the result of last year’s Wellington final.

The tournament and series-defending champions will chase an eighth Wellington title in the 16th edition of the event, facing an England side who were winners in 2009 and 2013.

New Zealand must do it without veteran captain DJ Forbes, who was forced to miss the semi-final with injury.

The young All Blacks Sevens responded with a rousing display, opening the scoring through Joe Webber before Kwagga Smith levelled the scores at 7-7 at halftime through a sweeping Blitzbokke try.

Jack Goodhue, playing at his first world series tournament, backed up a Scott Curry break to score midway through the second spell.

Ioane’s try came after Gillies Kaka’s penalty attempt hit an upright with 90 seconds remaining.

England advanced courtesy of a dramatic 24-19 win over Scotland, coming back from 19-0 down late in the first half.

Charlie Hayter crossed after the final hooter to break the heart of the Scots, who had never reached a world series cup final.

It was the second thrilling win of the day for England, who needed a “golden try” in extra time to Christian Lewis-Pratt to win their quarter-final against Fiji.

Scotland scraped past the United States 19-15 while New Zealand and South Africa were more comfortable quarter-final winners, beating Australia (26-7) and Kenya (19-5) respectively.

Australia and Fiji were to meet in the plate final after winning respective semi-finals over Kenya and the US.