17th Servis National Rugby Championship

Punjab Rugby Association defends national rugby title

Police upset Islamabad in semi-final

 LAHORE: The Punjab Rugby Association successfully defended its status as national rugby champions here on Sunday, defeating surprise finalists Police 29 - 7 at the climax of the 17th Servis National Rugby Championship played at the DHA stadium.

The defending champions put on a classy display of 7s rugby in the final of the biggest national rugby tournament held so far -- which featured 16 teams, including departmental and university sides, and teams from all provinces and Islamabad. With deft passes and switches, Punjab opened up holes in the Police's defence and ran in five tries. Centre Omar Butt scored two, and winger Arsalan Zahid, the top try-scorer of the tournament, went in for one. The police managed to respond with a solitary try.

The most exciting match and biggest upset of the tournament came in the semi-finals, when the Police team, which is relatively new to rugby, pulled off a narrow 17 - 12 win against the well established Islamabad side in extra time. Police came from 12 - 0 down, scoring two tries to level the match by the end of regulation time. Extra time, played in a sudden-death format, saw Islamabad doing most of the attacking, but with their final passes failing to go to hand. Police winger Rafique Bhatti, later adjudged Player of the Tournament, capitalised on the golden chance, evaded three tackles and dashed in from the Islamabad 22 yard line for a memorable match-winning try.

In the other semi-final, Punjab took on the Punjab B side, which won its pool and had a good tournament. But, the B side could not mount much of a challenge to the eventual tournament winners. Imran Ali, who played well throughout the tournament, scored Punjab B's only try in the semi final, while Punjab captain Mohammad Babar, winger Mannan Naseem and scrum-half Umer Usman all contributed to the 34 - 5 win.

Earlier, Islamabad eliminated one of last year's finalists, Army, in another toughly contested match. The Army team came back strong after conceding two tries in the first half, but national team skipper Kashif Khawaja sealed the match, scoring twice and producing one of the best individual tries of the tournament, sprinting 80 metres down the blind side to seal the match 21 – 14 in Islamabad's favour.

Lt Gen (r) Agha Jehangir Ali Khan, patron of the Pakistan Rugby Union, inaugurated the tournament and met with the participating teams  -- from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, NWFP, Central Province, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Pakistan Army, Police, LUMS and Bahria University. The chairman of Servis Industries distributed prizes to the participating teams after the final.

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