Australia lift Asia title
Sevens World Champions Australia were crowned champions at the Asia Pacific Women's Sevens Championship 2012 in Borneo with a 36-17 win over a plucky Japan side in the final.
Published by Scrum Queens, September 2nd, 2012
3 minute read
The result was a fine riposte from the Australians who had been beaten by the same opposition earlier in the tournament.
This years tournament, which included sides from Oceania, served as a strong warm-up tournament ahead of the 2012 Asian Womens Sevens Championships (Pune in October), which will also serve as the Asian womens rugby sevens qualifier for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2013.
Australia, firm favourites going into the tournament, brought a side with experience and new faces to the competition and were stung by a loss to a rapidly improving Japan at the pool stages but had their revenge in the final
Other features of the pool stages included another fine win for Japan over the vastly more experienced Kazakhstan and Hong Kongs 12-5 win over China, a first win for Hong Kong over their Asian rivals.
The defending champions Papua New Guinea also had a solid tournament reaching the semi finals and only losing out by a try to Australia, and they will take some confidence from their tournament.
But in the final Australias class and experience shone when they ran away with it in the second half.
For Japan, the decision by its union some years ago to take full control of the womens game is beginning to bear fruit, and some intense camps in recent months have paid off as they have certainly become a team to watch.
Pool Results:China 44 South Korea 0Papua New Guinea 35 Hong Kong 24Kazakhstan 41 Singapore 0Australia 59 Taiwan 0Hong Kong 12 China 5Papua New Guinea 26 Thailand 12Japan 14 Australia 10Kazakhstan 27 Taiwan 0China 38 Thailand 7Papua New Guinea 19 South Korea 0Japan 21 Kazakhstan 5Australia 50 Singapore 0China 36 - 7 ThailandPapua New Guinea 19 - 0 KoreaThailand 36 Korea 0Hong Kong 34 Korea 0Taiwan 10 Singapore 5Hong Kong 19 - 5 ThailandJapan 36 - 7 Taiwan
Cup Semi-finalsJapan v Hong Kong 37-0Australia v Papua New Guinea 12-7
9/10 place: Singapore v South Korea 29-08/7 place: Taiwan v Thailand 24-126/5 place: Kazakhstan v China 29-144/3 place: Papua New Guinea 26 Hong Kong 17
Cup FinalAustralia 36 Japan 17
*More results to follow