Singapore beats Malaysia at HSBC Asian 5 Nations Division I

Singapore scrumhalf Suhaimi Amran slotted a pressure penalty kick in the 80th minute of the HSBC Asian 5 Nations (HSBC A5N) Division II final, on Saturday night to beat Malaysia 20-17 and return the Rugby Lions to next year’s Division I tournament.

The win sees Singapore promoted to Division I, after being relegated from the same competition in 2012. Singapore will be the fourth seeds in next year’s tournament alongside UAE (1), Kazakhstan (2) and Chinese Taipei (3).

Saturday’s game was a close run affair throughout with the two teams separated by just two points at halftime and level at 17-all entering the game’s final five minutes. Singapore Captain Daniel Marc Chow commented on the win after the match, saying: “Full credit to Malaysia they threw everything they had at us and pushed us to the limit. But fortunately we defended well. We didn’t really execute our offence like we wanted to but we kept our nerve and full credit to Suhaimi (Amran) for keeping his nerve with that last kick.

“It’s massive for us to return to Division I. We are targeting returning to the top five in the next two years and I think we can achieve that. This year we had a new coaching team in place, which took a while to get used to, but I think that this win proves that it is working and we can build on this to return to the elite level in Asian rugby.”

In the HSBC A5N Division III final, Qatar continued their march up the Asian rugby ladder after beating Guam 13-7 to gain promotion to next year’s Division II competition where they will face Thailand (relegated from Division I), Malaysia and Iran.

Qatar, twice winners of Division IV in Dubai (2011 and 2012) made short work of their stay in Division III after advancing from another hard-fought contest versus Guam (in their third appearance in the Division III final).