ARFU 7s 2007

Report prepared by Gene Tong

28^th April 2007

Asia Women’s 7’s - Doha

Asia Women’s 7’s 2007

Match Report

Day 1 Thu 26^th April

Weather: Sunny

Temperature: 35 degrees (Hot & Dry, 30% humidity)

Ground: Firm

We arrived in Doha on Thursday 26^th April at 0900hrs. Training was from 1100 – 1200hrs at the warm up ground next to the stadium.

We had a late lunch at the Hotel and rested till 6pm. Dinner was at 7.30pm and team briefing was at 8.30pm.

Lights out was 1030hrs.

Teams & Fixtures

China had pulled out of the tournament due to unforeseen reasons, and we were down to an eight team 2 group tournament from a 9 team 3 groups tournament. We were playing the round robin format with direct qualification to Shield, Bowl, Plate & Cup Finals (Total 8 Games)

Fri 27^th April

Game 1

1300hrs AGRFU vs SPORE

Result Lost 0 – 10

1^st half: 0 – 5, 2^nd half 0 – 10

We started the game well to pressure AG into mistakes and turned over the ball. But we were not confident of running out wide early, and got held up in contact too much. AG’s 1^st try in the 1^st half came from a lineout error.

Second half was no different as we controlled possession but one bad pass put us under pressure and AG capitalized on it to score their second try and end the game with a 10 – 0 win against us.

Game 2

1440hrs SPORE vs THAILAND

Result Lost 5 – 22

1^st half: 0 – 10, 2^nd half 5 - 22

Try Scorer: Kristy Teh

We started out the game well to receive and control the ball moving across the park for over 2 mins with about 5 phases. Thailand capitalized on our bad passing and ran out wide to score against a slow drift defence. Their second try came from out wide again as they used their pace to outrun us.

We started the second half better with Kristy breaking the Thai defence from our 22m and players linking up for several phases to score our only try of the game. Thailand replied with 2 quick tries by running out wide and exploiting our slow drift defence.

Game 3
1640hrs SPORE vs UZBEKISTAN

Result Won 19 – 10

1^st half: 14 - 5, 2^nd half 19 – 10

Try Scorers:

1. Dawn Lim

2. Kristy Teh

3. Jeslyn Lim

Conversions:

1. Eunice Tay (2)

Uzebekistan scored the opening try from a pick and go in our 22m. From then on, our team started control the ball well and our Winger Dawn picked up a bouncing pass to slice through the defence to score our opening try under the posts. Eunice converted the try to give us a 7 – 5 lead. From open play, Kristy ran wide to score our second try which was also converted to take the lead to 14 – 5 at half time.

The 2^nd half saw us opening the game with another try from Jeslyn in open play. Uzbekistan came back with a try because we committed too many players at the breakdown to end the game.

Game 4

1840hrs SPORE vs KAZAKHSTAN

Result Lost 0 – 34

1^st half: 0 – 17, 2^nd half 0 – 34

We were up against the 3 time defending Champions Kazakhstan, and they we switched on for this game. What ever we lacked of physically & technically against Kazakhstan, our team played their hearts out to prevent them from scoring more tries.

We kept the scores down to 3 tries per half and even managed to control several phases against one of the best teams in the tournament. The gals did their moves and even achieved line breaks against the far superior opposition.

Summary of Day 1

Our team was caught napping in the 1^st 2 games, and we paid dearly for it by losing. We managed to wake up in the 3^rd and 4^th o play much better rugby and show a glimmer of hope that we still were in the run for top 4 positions.

Rankings at the end of day 1:

1. Kazakhstan

2. Japan

3. Thailand

4. Arabian Gulf

5. Hong Kong

6. Singapore

7. Uzbekistan

8. Sri Lanka

We take on Sri Lanka, Japan & Hong Kong in day 2, afterwhich we will be ranked from 1^st to 8^th and play in the respective Shield, Bowl, Plate & Cup Finals.

Sat 28^th April

Game 5

1400hrs SPORE vs SRI LANKA

Result Won 14 – 12

1^st half: 7-0, 2^nd half 14-12

Try Scorer:

1. Aslinda

2. Jeslyn

Coversions:

1. Eunice Tay (2/2)

We started out well, to score early in the game through a decoy move on general play and held on till half time. Sri lanka came back in the second half with an early try. But we replied with Jeslyn running right through in open play. The Lankans came back with one more unconverted try to end the game 14 – 12 in our favor.

Game 6

1520hrs SPORE vs JAPAN

Result Lost 49 – 0

1^st half: 0 - 21, 2^nd half 0 - 49

We started out well to contain Japan for 2mins. From then, the found our weaknesses and ran right through our defences. We fielded several reserves after we were 4 tries down to get maximum exposure, thus the additional tries in the second half.

Game 7

1640hrs HONG KONG vs SPORE

Result Won 17 - 12

1^st half: 7 - 0, 2^nd half 17 - 12

Try Scorer:

1. Aslinda (Open Play)

2. Kristy (Penalty move)

3. Eunice (Blindside break)

Conversions:

1. Eunice (1/3)

The team really wanted this game, and we opened the scores with an early try in the 1^st half from Adik in open play which was converted by Eunice and we held on to a 7-0 lead till half time. After the break, Kristy scored off a penalty move on the side. HK came back to score 2 tries by running on our blind side and doing pick & go. From a scrum, Eunice ran the blind for 60m to score the final try of the game.

Game 8

1825hrs Bowl Final - HONG KONG vs SPORE

Result Lost 0 - 5

1^st half: 0 - 0, 2^nd half 0 - 5

Coming from the last game vs HK, we were confident but not complacent. The team played a superb game for 20mins in the finals. The referee made several calls which resulted in 20 odd penalties against us. HK scored in the 8^th min of the second half, and the referee stopped that game with 10 sec’s left to go.

Overall Tour Summary

Played 8 games

Won 3

Lost 5

Rankings for 2007 Asia W7’s

1. Kazakhstan

2. Japan

3. Thailand

4. Arabian Gulf

5. Hong Kong

6. Singapore

7. Uzbekistan

8. Sri Lanka

We improved our positioning from 2006 where we were ranked 7^th. Coming from HK a month ago, all the teams have stepped up tremendously. We need to work on handling, kicking, gym & track sessions if we want to do better at our next international tournament. Training must start 3mths out from the tournament, not 1 month.

Team

1. Kristy Teh (Wanderers)
2. Jeslyn Lim (Wanderers)
3. Dawn Lim (Wanderes)
4. Aslinda Abdullah (Blacks)
5. Eunice Tay (Blacks)
6. Leung Wai Mun (Blacks)
7. Ang Weiyi (Blacks)
8. Wang Shao Ing (Blacks)
9. Tan Hui Juan (Blacks)
10. Amanda Teo (Blacks)
11. Karen Yeoh (SRC)
12. Angelina Liu (SRC)