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The Asian Rugby Five Nations Championship opening round was held on the Easter weekend. Japan, Kazakhstan and Hong Kong remain from last year but Korea was dropped to the lower division for the first time, replaced by Sri Lanka.
The other team to make up the five is United Arab Emirates.
This is the reconstituted Arabian Gulf side which played in the previous years. The reason is because the Asian Rugby Union was not happy with the pro-western make-up of the Arabian Gulf Rugby Union, wanted local Arab players to participate and also be the name of a nation.
It is also thought that the team will be eligible for the Asian Games. Because of their strength, the UAE came in as top division team and did not have to come through the promotion and relegation system.
Two Arab players, Ali Mohammed and Mohammed Shaker were selected as reserves for the opening game. Probably Hong Kong is not much better with only four Chinese named in their 22-man squad.
Japan received the bye in the opening round. Because of the nuclear crisis, it has had both its home games transferred so will play all games away. The match against Sri Lanka will be held in Colombo and that against Kazakhstan in neutral Bangkok.
The opening game was in Almaty where Kazakhstan hosted Hong Kong who they beat last year. The Kazakh side was weakened because Russian and European club teams would not release players for the match.
This led to Hong Kong taking a two try lead of 20-3 at half time and looked likely to win easily. However, in the second half, Kazakhstan played rough-house and had two forwards red-carded but the method unsettled the visitors who were able to hang on for a 23-10 win and reversed last year’s result.
The second half was quite brutal and amounted to a war of attrition. It seems Kazakhstan will need its top players if it wants to retain its second placing of last year.
The other match was held in Colombo in pouring rain between the re-formed UAE and Sri Lanka. It was all mud and slush on the waterlogged ground and not surprisingly, it was scoreless at half-time. The second half came alive as Sri Lanka took an 8-0 only to see the UAE claw back to lead 13-8. Sri Lanka levelled at 13 all with an unconverted try.
The weather was not conducive to goal kicking and both sides missed several attempts.
Close to full-time, the local crowd of 4,000 moaned in dismay as a certain Sri Lankan try was disallowed on the because the ball was not grounded properly on a touch judge’s call.
The UAE attacked and went close to scoring after the bell but the Sri Lankan defence held, only to give away a penalty but the visitors missed the kick in the quagmire so the game ended in a 13-all draw with each side scoring two tries. This was a good result for the newly promoted Sri Lankan team.
Next Friday, UAE will play Kazakhstan in Abu Dhabi and on Saturday, Hong Kong will host Japan.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.