Japan win Asian 7s first leg

The "Sakura Sevens" have won women's title at the Hong Kong leg of the Asian Sevens, the first event of the 2016 Asian Rugby Sevens Series.

Published by John Birch, September 3rd, 2016

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Japan win Asian 7s first leg

Photo: Mateitoga Bogidrauma

The two leading teams at this weekend’s Asian Sevens Series in Hong Kong deservedly met in the final, but it was Japan who came away with the prize, beating China 14-7.

This year’s Asian Sevens has been extended to a three tournament series, running side by side with the men, with six "core teams" - Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Uzbekistan - plus three "guest teams" - Guam, South Korea and Sri Lanka (South Korea missed this one) - who will play in two tournaments each, with the best performing guest team over the series will be promoted to the core for next year.

Which does lead to the question, “Where was Kazakhstan?”.

After giving up fifteens to concentrate on sevens earlier this year, this would have been expected to have been the start of their challenge for Asia’s second spot at the Olympics. But they were no-shows at Hong Kong, and are not entered for the other two tournaments in the series. So what Is happening?

The answer is near farce. Back in April Kazakhstan contacted Asian Rugby to say that they were withdrawing from the 2016 Asian fifteens championship. It was, admittedly, at very short notice – barely two weeks before the tournament was due to start, which cannot have made them exactly flavour of the month in the regional federation. However, the problem seems to have been the wording used in the notification - a “2016 withdrawal” – which was misinterpreted or mistranslated as being a withdrawal from ALL 2016 competitions, even though only the fifteens was specifically mentioned. The mistake was soon spotted by the Kazakhstani union, but – apparently – Asian Rugby refused to accept a correction. So no teams from Kazakhstan this year.

Of the eight teams that did make the first round, it was clear from early on that Japan and China were the form teams as the breezed through their opening two games, China thumping Uzbekistan 59-0 and Sri Lanka 39-0, while Japan were equally dismissive of Singapore (45-0) and Guam (39-0).

Thailand and Hong Kong also won their opening two games against the same opposition, but by far tighter margins – Thailand only beat Sri Lanka 14-7 while Hong Kong just slipped by Singapore 7-0.

As a result, the outcome of the two pool deciders at the end of the opening day were really no surprise, China seeing off the Thais 26-0 before Japan were equally dismissive of the hosts, winning 28-0.

Saturday saw the two pool winners reverse their Friday final round opponents, and perhaps the scores here gave a hint of what was to come in the final as Japan walloped Thailand 43-0 while China had a far tougher game with Hong Kong, winning just 19-7.

Before the final, Sri Lanka gained an edge in the promotion stakes beating rivals Guam 26-0 in the plate semi-final before ending sixth, while Guam ended seventh.

Hong Kong also kept in contention for the overall title by taking third with a 36-7 win over Thailand, whose second day was not going as well as their first.

The final itself was an incredibly tight affair. After the first ten minutes there was no score, and it was three minutes into the second half before Ying Zhao finally broke the deadlock for China, Xiaoming Yu converting.

Two minutes later Chiharu Nakamura pulled Japan level before, Mio Yakmanaka adding the extras, before with three minutes left, Mayu Shimizu put Japan ahead – her ninth try of the weekend - Yakmanaka again converting.

The series continues in South Korea in three weeks.Results

Pool C:Japan Singapore 45-0; Hong Kong Guam 29-0; Japan Guam 39-0; Hong Kong Singapore 7-0; Singapore Guam 29-7; Japan Hong Kong 28-0

Pool D:China Uzbekistan 59-0; Thailand Sri Lanka 14-7; China Sri Lanka 37-0; Thailand Uzbekistan 44-0; Uzbekistan Sri Lanka 0-39; China Thailand 26-0

Plate

Semi Final: Singapore Uzbekistan 27-0; Guam Sri Lanka 0-26

7th / 8th Play Off: Uzbekistan Guam 0-46

Plate Final: Singapore Sri Lanka 10-7

Cup

Semi Final: Japan Thailand 43-0; Hong Kong China 7-19

3rd / 4th Play Off: Thailand Hong Kong 7-36

Cup Final: Japan China 14-7

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