Vientiane was the venue last week for the Asia Division II East Rugby Championships. In the first round played mid-week, top seeded Guam easily accounted for the hosts, Laos, with a 48-10 thumping.
The other match was eagerly awaited as the IRB wanted to gauge whether China had improved.
Women’s rugby in China is progressing quite well but the men have lagged behind, mainly due to officialdom. In fact the men had not won an international since 2011, hence its dropping through the divisions. China played Indonesia and came through with a 10-6 victory.
In the finals, China showed that it can play when needed and took the division with a decisive 41-10 win over Guam. The minor game was a hard-fought affair with Indonesia edging out Laos in an 11-10 win. The game was marred by a flurry of yellow cards in the final 10 minutes as tempers frayed and control was lost. How next year’s tournament is comprised is yet to be determined by the Asia RFU.
Europe’s final division game was played on the weekend in Turku. This was a division 2D match which had the closest table of all the European groups. The home team, Finland, needed a win to avoid relegation and Bosnia and Herzegovina needed a bonus point to make a promotion play-off. Guess what happened? Exactly that.
A small crowd of 200 saw Bosnia lead 20-7 at half time, but then Finland, to the chants of “Suomi, Suomi”, stormed home to win 29-25 with four tries to three. It meant Finland grabbed the needed win while Bosnia got the needed losing bonus point. Some have called it a “stew” but there is no evidence of this.
Bosnia and Herzegovina will now play Austria this month for a place in the 2C division. Division cellar-dweller, Greece, is relegated to the third division and replaced by Turkey in the 2D division. There are two other promotion play-offs scheduled this month, Croatia and Latvia for the 2A division and Hungary and Denmark for the 2B group.
Japan caused a bit of an upset when it played Samoa in Tokyo. Scoring three tries to two, the Brave Blossoms beat the islanders 33-14. The accurate goal kicking from Ayumu Goromaru, who converted the three tries and kicked four penalties, was the difference between the two teams. Japan has now won seven successive games, its longest winning streak ever.
Only one NACRA game was played last week. It was in the minor north division played at Providenciales where Bahamas had a 13-11 win over Turk and Caicos Islands.
The Rugby World Cup qualifying matches for Africa will be played in June in Antananarivo, Madagascar. The competing nations are Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The winner will be Africa’s representative in the finals and will be placed in pool C. The runner-up will proceed to the repechage and is drawn to play Russia.
Also this month, Fiji will play Cook Islands. The winner will be placed in Rugby World Cup pool A as Oceania’s representative.
Johnno
Guest
AB'S are dads army dead right Ma Nonu 32 Conrad smith 32 going on 33 this year Mccaw 33 going on 34 this year Carter 32 Mealamu 35 this year Corey Jane 30 Kaino 30 Piri Weepu 30 Tony Woodcock 33 Some old fella's there Chan Wee
Daveski
Guest
Agree Johnno can't be a back under the age of 30 in that team.... Maybe Pierre Hola will play fly half for Tonga too... I reckon Samoa are in for a rude shock next RWC...
Chan Wee
Guest
even with Horie at hooker, Tnaka at scrum half and Sau at center , japan have little chance of beating the higher ranked teams. their game is based on fast forward speed while their power game is ill-matched for big made teams. The team lacks height among forwards and height and weight among backs. their tallest players I believe are from NZ. the full back Goromaru is a good kicker and their backs do have speed and slippery skills. the issue is contact , most other teams will win the collisions. Can they beat South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, USA? Last year Scotand sent an understrength team to Japan and lost a test ; this year Samoa did the same. But at RWC , in England , they could have close ones with Scots Samoans and Americans , doubt they will beat anyone.
Chan Wee
Guest
well chk out the bok side ;) they just made big Victor skipper for June tests !!! none of them Samoans over 33 so even MIB have those over 33 :P
Johnno
Guest
An aging side, a lot of RWC 2011 boys still there.
Chan Wee
Guest
not sure if they can beat boks but they can beat teams ranked around 10 - 20 in the IRB ladder. their good 23 may be something like this : 1. Census Johnston / James Johnston 2. Ti’i Paulo / Ole Avei 3. Anthony Perenise / Logovi'i Mulipola 4. Daniel Leo 5. Kane Thompson / Filo Paulo 6. Maurie Fa'asavalu 7. Jack Lam 8. Faifili Levave / Ofisa Treviranus 9. Kahn Fotuali'i / Jeremy Su'a 10.Tusi Pisi / Johnny Leota 11.Anitelea Tuilagi 12.David Lemi 13.George Pisi 14.Alapati Leiua 15.James So'oialo / Fa'atoina Autagavaia
Johnno
Guest
Or the Boks
Tigranes
Guest
Samoa were basically all amateurs If they had access to all their players in Europe and NZ, they would smash Japan and probably give any nation bar NZ a real scare.
BBA
Guest
I think their chances went down after that match. Samoa wont take them lightly and will be well aware of what happens if they do not prepare or put out a strong team.
Daveski
Guest
Japan's team did not include three of their four Super Rugby contracted players. Yes apart from that it was close to their full strength team but not having your first choice hooker,half and outside centre is a decent test of depth. It'll be tougher for them to beset Samoa at RWC ( they are drawn in the same pool ) but I think they're a sneaky chance
Emric
Guest
Are we starting to see the results of Olympic inclusion?
Chan Wee
Guest
Japan had their best available team. Samoa was a development team. Could not recognize any names .. they had a grand total of 64 caps in the 23!!!
Johnno
Guest
Germany has been the success story in international rugby this year, as has been Japan's improvement. Germany give em another years even better they'll get. Japan have got better on ticket from last year's AB'S test in Tokyo. Got a big crowd V HK in the last game at the now to be demolished national stadium. Samoa was weakened playing roster, but Japan had some good players out, Japan SR players and Craig Wing out injured.