South Africa's Ryno Benjamin scored a dramatic last-minute try to halt an England fightback and seal the Dubai Sevens title with a 19-12 victory.
The Boks took a 12-0 lead into the break through Robert Ebersohn and Mpho Mbiyozo, but tries from Micky Young and Tom Biggs brought the scores level.
But Gio Aplon eluded the England defence to assist man-of-the-tournament Benjamin, who sealed the victory.
"Our team is learning but I'm proud of them," said England coach Ben Ryan.
"To come back from 12-0 down with our fly-half playmaker injured, our other fly-half not on the field and then to lose our winger in the first half as well, the cards were really marked against us.
"We fought back, scored two cracking tries and we had just a little further to go.
"We had a line-out where if we'd made that count it would have been our trophy."
England had beaten World Cup holders Fiji on day one and IRB World Series champions New Zealand in the semi-finals, while South Africa needed sudden death to beat Fiji.
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