India crush China to march into final
Hosts India beat China 94-0 in the tournament opener to sail into the final of the HSBC Asian 5 Nations rugby tournament here on Wednesday.
Naseer Hussain-led India put up a dominant display and outplayed the Chinese in all departments of the game at the floodlit Delhi University Rugby Stadium.
With the win, India are one just step away from progressing to the Division-I of Asian rugby.
India will play the Philippines, who got the better of Thailand 53-33, in the summit clash on Saturday. A win in the final will see India progress to the top division for the first time.
Against China, India were the dominant side from the onset. In the first five minutes, the hosts earned two penalties and Rohan Sethna made no mistakes converting them.
From there on, there was no looking back for the spirited Indians. It was a complete team effort from the team with Kayrus Unwala, Gautam Dagar, Rohan Sethna, Parvinder Singh, Pritom Roy, Sandeep Singh, Puneet Krishnamoorthy, Dalwinder Singh, Thimmalay Madanda and Kamaldeep Dagar all converting tries.
Rohan was the stand-out player for India as he converted most of the tries and was also on target with the penalties.
India captain Nasser Hussain credited the victory to team effort.
“We played a fantastic game and stuck to our strategy. The players played a team game and we were well prepared. For our next game we need to cut on our errors and if we can do that, we will have a good chance of winning the tournament,” Hussain said after the match.
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