The All Blacks and Black Ferns Sevens have come up short in their respective title bids at the Cape Town leg of the sevens World Series.
Argentina were crowned victors in the men's field, with a 45-12 thumping of Australia, whose female counterparts edged France in the women's final to claim their second straight gold medal.
After sailing through poolplay unbeaten, the NZ women ran in seven unanswered tries to crush Canada 41-0 in their quarter-final, but they met their match against France in the semi-final.
The French struck with two early tries to take a 12-0 lead from which the New Zealanders couldn't recover, eventually falling to a 24-12 defeat.
They bounced back to beat USA in the third-place playoffs to earn bronze, adding to the silver they won at Dubai in the opening round.
Despite losing to both Canada and Samoa during poolplay, the NZ men managed to clinch a quarter-final berth against Ireland, where they were convincingly defeated.
Terry Kennedy scored a hattrick to help the Irish to a daunting 26-0 lead, killing the contest early. New Zealand beat South Africa 31-7 in the playoff for fifth place.
All Blacks Sevens now sit fourth on the overall men's standings, while Black Ferns Sevens are third in the women.
The series resumes at Perth on January 26-28.
