Qatar brush off India
If not for their scrappy style of play India could have nailed a victory over higher ranked Qatar, who overcame their regional opponents by 34-25 in the third place playoff game of the Asia Rugby Championship Men’s Division I played at the Racecourse ground in Colombo yesterday.
India had obviously had a few opportunities to overtake their much fancied opponents, yet Qatar, despite being equally patchy at times, made use of their experience to seal the game with a tally of five tries, three conversions and a penalty, while enjoying
a commanding lead of 26-6
at halftime.
The losers, made a late burst, and would have to blame themselves for their own mishaps, despite ending with a tally of three tries and two each of conversions and penalties.
Qatar made their intentions clear through in the second minute through a try by scrumhalf James Phillips, as flyhalf Brook Tremayne converted to have an early 7-0 lead. Through a mishap, Qatar conceded a penalty in the fifth minute, to which India skipper and flyhalf Deepak Kumar responded by putting it over.
But two minutes later Qatar expanded the lead to 14-3 with a try from prop Nicholas Lock, with a successful conversion to follow from fullback Iliesa Rakibu. Following the trend, Qatar conceded another penalty soon after to give the Indian skipper an easy kick over the post, to cut down the deficit to 6-14.
Centre Pita Baracibi and fullback Rakibu managed to breach the Indian defence in the 13th and 18th minutes to boost their team’s total, as Tremayne put over the second try to have Qatar in the box
seat with a lead of 26-6 up until
the halftime.
India made all attempts to invade the Qatar territory, but their lack of exposure was evident when almost all of their efforts were cut off. But prop Pradeep Tanwar managed to complete his team’s efforts in the 53rd minute, following a continuous onslaught through their forwards, and with Kumar’s conversion India were closing in at 26-13.
A successful conversion by Tremayne to a penalty rewarded in the 58th minute had Qatar back in the game at 29-13, and to take them to a much safer zone Phillips landed his second try of the game in
the 70th minute as the lead expanded to 34-13.
Though India responded with
two back-to-back tries from winger Vallabh Patil and Neeraj in the dying moments of the game, added with a conversion from skipper Kumar, could not prevent them
from succumbing to an
unavoidable defeat.