The UAE endured a topsy-turvy opening day of the Asian Sevens Series second round in Shanghai earlier on Saturday, defeating Singapore, then losing to South Korea.
Both games were decided in the dying minutes as the UAE threw away a winning position late against Korea before doing the reverse against Singapore.
The UAE eventually lost 19-14 against the Koreans but were 14-12 up going into the last two minutes. Tries from debutant Mohammad Abbas and captain Renier Els, as well as two conversions from Imad Reyal had put the UAE in a strong position.
They had the chance to extend the lead but an aborted scoring chance led directly to a winning try for Korea in dying minutes.
“We’d certainly positioned ourselves to win the match but we couldn’t get there,” Performance Manager Duncan Hall said.
Against the bottom seeded Singapore, the UAE did the opposite, allowing Singapore to take the early initiative giving them a five-point lead going into the final minutes.
With two minutes to go, Els scored a try to level the scores before Jono Bester won the game with 30 seconds left on the clock. Abbas scored the UAE’s earlier try while Reyal had two conversions.
“The Singapore game ended up being really tough for us,” said Hall. “They came out early and put us under a lot of pressure. We started with the same team that we did in the first game and to the boys’ credit we actually were down 12-7 with two minutes to go, then we came back and scored. We played our best minutes at the end.
“We went into the Korea game very positively, which we did against Singapore, too. They were different games – one we really could have won and one we could really have lost but they turned out the other way,” Hall added.
The UAE face tough matches today against top seeded team Hong Kong before a must-win game against Sri Lanka.
Hall said: “We’re playing the top seed (on Sunday) and they had a really good win (on Saturday) against Korea in the last match. Two hours later, we play Sri Lanka. So, if we win that game we will finish third in the pool, which we’re aiming to do.
“We had four new members of the squad who made their debuts today. These things are about experience, about learning about yourself. It’s hard work. We’re aiming for at best 5/6 playoff and at worse 7/8th.”
Elsewhere China and Hong Kong picked up big wins, while Chinese Taipei scored wins over Malaysia and the Philippines.
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