National rubgy team gunning for Asian title

Pakistan, India hopeful of reaching finals for promotion to Division II.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Rugby Union (PRU) is set to hold the Asian 5 National semi-finals on June 19 in Lahore, where India will compete as the top seed of the Asian Rugby Union Division III West.

PRU Secretary Arif Saeed said that India are ranked at the top of the group and will be the team to beat. Lebanon and Pakistan are the second and third seeds respectively, while Uzbekistan is ranked fourth.

The four teams will compete to reach the finals in hopes of being promoted to Division II.

The favourites, India, will be looking to reclaim their Division II status after being relegated to Division III last year.

“It’s going to be a good event,” Saeed told The Express Tribune. “We’ve organised a camp and the national players are training with head coach Roger Coombs.

“India is going to be the strongest competitor, but we are hoping that Pakistan can reach the title-decider. We want to witness an India-Pakistan final.”

India will be playing Uzbekistan while Pakistan will compete against Lebanon on June 19. The winners of both matches will then clash on June 22 in the final.

“We have players in the camp who are coming from the UK and France where they play club rugby. Hopefully they have also improved during this time.

“Overall we are expecting good results even though the weather here is hot.”

Despite some security concerns earlier, Saeed said that the Uzbek players have been in Lahore for the Punjab Youth Festival, while Pakistan had hosted the U19 event with India last year; therefore the officials from these countries have experienced security arrangements in Pakistan before.

“All the teams are coming to the event; they are familiar with the situation here. We are very serious about the security of the teams,” said Saeed, who added that the PRU will announce the Pakistan squad this week.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2014.

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