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The Qatar national rugby team posted a resounding victory on Saturday in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Division III final. Qatar continued their march up the Asian rugby ladder after beating Guam 13-7 to gain promotion to next year’s Division II competition where they will face Thailand (relegated from Division I), Malaysia and Iran. |
Qatar, twice winners of Division IV in Dubai (2011 and 2012) made short work of their stay in Division III after advancing from another hard-fought contest versus Guam (in their third appearance in the Division III final). Qatar posted the only points of the first half with a penalty from flyhalf Paul Beard in the 13th minute as both sides’ bulky forward packs fought it out early on. Guam looked a bit more dangerous in the backs but lost advantage when captain Paul Claros was sin-binned in the 15th minute.
Qatar couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities and then lost their own open-side Jamie Frost to the bin in the 32nd minute. Neither side could break through after the first forty as Qatar entered the break with a 3-0 lead.
The second half saw Guam leap out to a try in the first minute after the resumption of play through a nice 20 metre scamper from hooker Brandon O’Mallon. Centre Gerard Aguon converted the try to put Guam in the lead 7-3 after 41 minutes.
In the 56th minute Frost redeemed himself by scoring Qatar’s only try of the match to put them ahead 10-7 after Beard’s conversion. The game remained in the balance for the final 20 minutes when Qatar No 8 Mark Hibbs was sin-binned for infringing at the tackle.
The Qatari defence held strong as Guam threw everything at them in their attempt to re-take the lead but lost reserve forward Matthew Borja to the sin-bin in the 76th minute.
The resulting penalty was neatly finished off by Beard to give Qatar the lead at 13-7 and the HSBC A5N Division III silverware.
On the final whistle there were ecstatic scenes from the Qatar team, which included 3 local Qatar players who played with distinction – Mubarak al-Malik, Abdulaziz al-Dosari and Abdulkareem al-Mohannadi. Coach Aaron Palmer said the team deserved the reward for the hard work they had put in leading into the tournament and now being promoted again would enhance the exposure of rugby in Qatar and we would love to partner with the QOC to introduce the game to the Qatari population and continue our climb in the Asian and world rankings.
Qatar had earlier beaten top seeds China 76-0 in their opening game on Wednesday which put them into the final for the opportunity at promotion.