The Kiwis have 107 points after six of 11 tournaments. Argentina moved into second spot on 86, equal with South Africa, while Olympic champion Fiji moved into fourth spot on 84 points with a 21-19 bronze-medal win over Australia.
New Zealand captain Sam Dickson said he hoped his team had given the people at home a little boost after Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand earlier this month, killing 11 people and causing billions of dollars in damage to homes and infrastructure.
“A shout out to the people back home doing it tough. We’re thinking of you,” he said. “Hopefully you enjoyed that and it put a smile on your dial for a little bit.”
It was an unusual final in Los Angeles, featuring two teams which had lost in the group stage. Argentina lost the tournament-opening game 7-5 to Britain and the New Zealanders lost 14-7 to Samoa to finish second in their group.
But New Zealand rebounded strongly in the knockout stages, beating Britain 24-12 in the quarterfinals and Australia 33-17 in the semifinals, while Argentina had a 19-12 win over Samoa in the quarterfinals before edging Fiji 20-17 to reach the deciding match.
The first half of the final was lopsided, with Leo scoring from deep in his own quarter in the 4th minute and Carter outpacing the cover defense with a simple move from a scrum in the 6th minute. Carter crossed again on the right side two minutes later to finish off a counterattack that started from inside New Zealand’s own in-goal area with Argentina pressing for a try just before halftime.
At 17-12, the New Zealanders steadily worked up field before Rush picked up a loose pass, threw a dummy inside ball before rounding the defense and clinching the win.
The series moves to Vancouver next weekend with men’s and women’s tournaments.
