Japan Beats Philippines to Win Borneo Sevens

Japan ran in eight unanswered tries against the Philippines to sweep to a 46-0 victory and clinch the Borneo Sevens title, the second and final ranking event in the HSBC Asian Sevens Series on Sunday.

The victory saw Japan retain its position as the top team in Asian Sevens for a second consecutive year.

In the second annual Asia Pacific Women’s Sevens, Papua New Guinea claimed its first title with a 24-10 win over China.

A young Japanese outfit turned on the style and power to completely outclass the Philippines who were playing in their first HSBC Asian Sevens Series Cup final in their short history in the game.

“Our speed and skill was probably too good for the Philippines. But this win is just the beginning for us as we are looking ahead to the 2016 Rio Olympics already,” said Japan coach Wataru Murata.

Fielding only one player from the squad that won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou last year, the youthful Japanese seven moved quickly into top gear to stamp their class. Japan’s big game had come in the semi-finals when they came from behind to beat defending champions Hong Kong 15-12. In the other semi-finals, the Philippines knocked out China 19-14 in sudden death extra time.

“We had set a goal of reaching the last four in this tournament. We have now set a few records. We beat China for the first time and by entering the final, we have put Philippines rugby on the map,” said delighted Philippines Volcanoes coach, Matt Cullen. “Finishing second to a team like Japan is an honour ... This is way beyond our expectations.”

Philippines began the day with a hard-fought 28-14 victory in the quarterfinals over hosts Malaysia before pulling off an upset over China in a game where the lead changed twice.

China led 14-7 at halftime and was close to clinching the tie but Harry Morris gave the Philippines another lease of life when he scored right on full-time to push the game into extra time. Winger Joseph Matthews then found himself in space to score the crucial winning try much to the delight of his teammates.

In the other half of the draw, Japan had overcome an out-of-sorts South Korea 36-0 in the quarterfinals to set up a mouthwatering semi-final against Hong Kong who had booked their berth with a similar win over Chinese-Taipei.

Hong Kong led 12-5 at the break thanks to tries from Alex McQueen and Keith Robertson with Japan’s score coming from Sho Takenaka.

A poor kick from Robertson re-starting the second half gave Japan a penalty on the halfway line and they made full use of this opportunity with Daiki Yanagawa being put into space for a try.

That try went unconverted but Japan kept pressing and the pressure resulted in Hong Kong uncharacteristically making errors. These led to Taiki Watanabe scoring from close range to give Japan the lead, 15-12, for the first time in the match.

That loss saw Hong Kong chances of winning the number one ranking in Asia go down the drain. They bounced back to win the third place play-off defeating China 34-14 but it was small consolation.

In the fifth place play-off, Chinese-Taipei defeated Malaysia 19-0 while the United Arab Emirates beat Korea 17-12 to finish seventh. Sri Lanka won the bowl defeating Kazakhstan 26-12, and finished ninth in the 12-team tournament.

In the second annual Asia Pacific Women’s Sevens, Papua New Guinea defeated China 24-10 thanks to a hat-trick from Joanna Lagona. The win for Papua New Guinea saw them claim their first APWS title after losing to Kazakhstan in last year’s final. Samoa, whose only defeat in the tournament was at the hands of Papua New Guinea in yesterday’s Cup semi final, beat Hong Kong 17-5 to take the bronze medal. Singapore edged Cook Islands 7-5 to claim the Plate.

From two ranking tournaments in 2011, the HSBC Asian Sevens Series will grow to three ranking tournaments by 2012 and ultimately to all four events being ranking tournaments by 2013.

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