The UAE’s participation in the U20 Asia Rugby Asian Sevens Series ended on a sour note Saturday as they suffered three straight defeats in Hong Kong.
Roelof Kotze’s men were beaten 24-21 in their final game against Kazakhstan, meaning they finished last of the eight teams competing in the second leg of the Series.
The UAE youngsters were hammered by hosts Hong Kong 41-7 in the quarter-finals, following that up with a 21-12 defeat to Thailand.
Not our best day! Lost all 3 games! Back Home to start again! Seniors in China next month!
— ROELOF KOTZE (@coachroelof) August 22, 2015
The Kazakhstan result made it five straight defeats for the UAE since they opened the second leg so promisingly by beating Sri Lanka on Friday.
“Obviously it’s a massive disappointment knowing that we had the potential to do very well,” said UAE skipper Adel Al Hendi, 20.
“I still stand by what I said, that the team came together very well, and we showed that when we played last week’s semi finalists Sri Lanka.
“We put in a beautiful performance against them and that’s not something to be tarnishished despite our final ranking.”
After their perfect start to proceedings, the UAE had given themselves an uphill task, defeats to Malaysia and China seeing them finish bottom of Pool B to set up a clash with Pool A winners Hong Kong.
The tournament hosts scored seven tries in their unanimous victory, Kenyan powerhouse Kip Chirchir the sole man to cross for the UAE. Hong Kong went on to hammer Malaysia 52-7 in the Cup final to record back-to-back leg wins.
– From Chris Henry to Quade Cooper: Rugby World Cup watch
– Burgess to Farrell: Winners & losers from England’s victory
– UAE: Last-minute call-up Izzy Foa’i delighted to help UAE U20s
Defeat sent the UAE into the Plate semi-finals, Al Ain Amblers duo Jeremaia Kilicanasau and Tomasi Tirkikula scoring tries as they were downed by Thailand.
At the previous week’s first leg in Malaysia, the UAE at least had the comfort of beating Kazakhstan in the seventh-eighth place play-off.
Here they could not even fall back on that, the Kazakh’s triumphing four tries to three. Devante Steele, Kilicanasau and Majid Al Balooshi crossed for Kotze’s men.
Try-scorer Chirchir, 17, a real positive during the two legs for the UAE with a total haul of seven tries, felt he and his colleagues could have performed far better.
“We are completely gutted, especially since we lost to a team that we had already beaten twice before,” he said.
“We were off to a bad start losing against Hong Kong at the start of day though the vibes remained positive and we managed to put on a great performance against Thailand although it wasnt enough.
“I am personally feeling quite disappointed as I thought that first place was within our reach, however, as a team we didn’t reach our true potential.”
Iziq Foa’i also thought the UAE are a lot better than they showed in Hong Kong.
“Unfortunately I was injured in our first game. It was so frustrating watching from the sidelines,” said the 19-year-old. “Our team, when playing our game, are a lot better than most of the teams here.”
