Qatar Rugby Federation President Yousef Al Kuwari giving away the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy 2017 (ARST) to Philippine team at the Aspire Warm-up Track and Rugby Stadium yesterday. Phillipines defeated Thailand 41-7 in the two-day tournament.
Philippines trounced Thailand 41-7 to emerge as runaway winners in the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy 2017 (ARST) and booked a place in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series at the Aspire Warm-up Track and Rugby Stadium yesterday.
In the final, Philippines led by top scorer Daniel Matthews (16) were simply unstoppable.
Harrison Blake (10), Timothy Bweheni, Tommy Gilbert and Vincent Young, with five conversions each joined the party to clinch the top honours in the two-day tournament.
Only two Thailand players got their names on the scorecard in the final, Pongsatorn Choaychoo (5) and Warongkorn Khamkoet (2).
Earlier in the semi-final, Philippines stunned top seeds Singapore 12-10 in a buzzer beating win to qualify for the title clash, while in the other last -four clash, Thailand edged UAE to make it to the final.
For Philippines, Sean Lynch and Vincent Young got their names on the score sheet with five tries each while Daniel Matthews found the target twice for the winners.
Singapore, who were aiming to make it to the Rugby Sevens Series by winning the Qatar tournament, relied heavily on Nicholas Yau Yu Hong, who scored all the ten tries while no other player converted for Singapore.
In the second semi-final, Thailand defeated UAE 19-17. UAE went on to defeat Singapore 43-14 to clinch the third place
Nattapat Prasertwit, Pitpong Plybua and Wuttikorn Kaewkhio scored five times while Warongkorn Khamkoet were successful on four occasions. For UAE, Jeremaia Kilicanasau, Niall Statham and Sean Carey converted five times while Andrew Powell got his name on the scorecard for two conversions.
Earlier, hosts Qatar went down fighting 24-5 to Thailand in the quarter-finals, while UAE eased past Pakistan 24-10.
Warongkorn Khamkoethad top scored with seven tries for Thailand while Apichai Phichaikamol, Nattapat Prasertwit and Wuttikorn Kaewkhio found the target five times to keep the momentum going for Thailand. Pitpong Plybua scored twice for the winners.
For the hosts, Rakan Al Marri tried to make a fight, but his five tries were not good enough to give his team the decisive advantage in the end result. In the other last eight encounters, Singapore made it to the semi-finals defeating India 19-7 to set up a clash with Philippines, who trounced Iran 42-0.
In the play-off matches, Qatar defeated Iran 24-10 to finish fifth, India finished seventh after defeating traditional rivals Pakistan 14-12.
Iran defeated India 17-5 in the play-off matches and set up a clash with Qatar for the 5th and 6th place play-off, while India and Pakistan were left to fight for seventh and eighth places. Qatar helped by an excellent show from Maciej Jan Lenartowicz, who top scored with seven tries, trounced Pakistan 21-5, in the play-off match. Luke Ward and Tom Featherstone scored five times, while Boubker Lqebch and Mohamed Sharith Amit two times.
Eleven teams took part in the tournament, the preliminary rounds which saw the teams fighting it out in the four pools, with the top qualifying for the semi-finals.
Jordan, Nepal and Bangladesh failed to get past the pool stages and were left fighting for places 9 to 11.
