No surprises as top teams stay unbeaten

The top four teams in the Asia Rugby Sevens Trophy — Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Philippines, Thailand — stayed unbeaten on the first day of the two-day tournament at the Aspire Warm Up and Rugby Stadium yesterday.The 11-nation tournament is the ticket for the winner to get promoted to the top-tier Sevens Series.Singapore, top seed in the Qatar Rugby Federation-organised tournament and looking to bounce back immediately into the top tier, picked up wins over Jordan (24-15) and Pakistan (26-5), with Chong Yao Teng among eight players in the tournament who top the list of try-scorers with three of those five-pointers to their name.With Pakistan opening the Day One with a close 24-19 win over Jordan, courtesy a try each by Ahmed Wasim Akram, Mohamed Afzal and Saad Arif, they have made it to the knockouts, and will play the UAE in the quarterfinals today.The UAE and India were drawn in Pool C and both have made it to the knockouts after Lebanon pulled out of the tournament.While the first match between the two teams seemed like a close affair on paper with the UAE winning 19-12, with Sean Carey scoring two tries for the winners, they just ran away with the second match 45-0.Carey scored his third, while teammate Jeremaia Kilicanasau too made it three in the event so far with two tries.India will take on Pool A topper Singapore, who, despite the wins, haven’t hit the right note on the field yet.Qatar and the Philippines both blanked out their Pool B mates Nepal, with Rakan al-Mutawaa and Maciej Jan Lenartowicz scoring three tries each in the hosts’ 53-0 win earlier in the day.The Philippines too had little trouble going past the team from the Himalayan country, who were made associate members of Asia Rugby just three years ago. The trip to Qatar is only their third tournament outside Nepal.Tommy Gilbert scored three tries for the Philippines in the 67-0 win, with two each from Timothy Bweheni and Harrison Blake.The evening match between the Philippines and Qatar started on an upbeat note for the hosts with al-Mutawaa and Isaac Banks combining well in the first few moments of the game, and coming away with a try.However, the flow reversed thereafter with Joseph Mathews, Sean Lynch and Vincent Young slipping through the Qatari defences to eventually force a 26-5 victory to stay unbeaten.“There were a lot of close calls in the match, but if we play them again, I am confident that we would put a better show,” al-Mutawaa told Gulf Times after the game against the Philippines.“We got a yellow card early on, and we were six against seven for a bit, and we just couldn’t pick it up after that. But I don’t think there is anything to be afraid of. I am sure, tomorrow we will make up for it.”The result meant that Qatar will meet Thailand, the Pool D topper, in the quarterfinals, while the Philippines will play today’s first quarterfinal against Iran.Iran opened their ARST campaign with a confidence-boosting 33-5 victory over Bangladesh, but were no match for the speed of Thailand players, who blanked both their pool mates.“We are happy with our performances for the day. It was a team effort, and we have been able to gel well as a team, and that has shown on the field,” Thailand coach Tanyavit Kuasint said.“We have to use our speed, just like we did today. But I do hope that we are able to even better tomorrow.”Asked about the move up into the Sevens Series, Kuasint wasn’t giving anything away. “As far as the promotion goes, we don’t want our boys to be under any kind of pressure. Of course, we hope to move up but we just want to play better and to the best of our abilities.”The three bottom teams at the from the pool stage — Jordan, Nepal and Bangladesh — will play two matches each among themselves.Action starts at 1pm, with the Cup Final, which will conclude the tournament, to start at 7:18pm.RESULTSPool    ResultA    Pakistan 24 Jordan 19B    Qatar 53 Nepal 0D    Iran 33 Bangladesh 5A    Singapore 24 Jordan 15B    Philippines 67 Nepal 0C    UAE 19 India 12D    Thailand 29 Bangladesh 0A    Singapore 26 Pakistan 5B    Philippines 26 Qatar 5C    UAE 45 India 0D    Thailand 31 Iran 0TODAY’S SCHEDULEQF1: Philippines vs Iran (1:22pm)QF2: Singapore vs India (1:44pm)QF3: Qatar vs Thailand (2:06pm)QF4: Pakistan vs UAE (2:28pm)Semifinals to start at 4:44pmCup Final to start at 7:18pmPlacement matches for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th, start at 6:12pm