Dubai: The UAE must limit Japan fewer than 100 points in their Asian Five Nations (A5N) clash at The Sevens Stadium from 8pm on Friday. But they must also conserve enough energy to beat the Philippines next Saturday in order to avoid relegation from the Top Five.
With both the UAE and Philippines equal on no points from two defeats in two matches — and defeat expected in both their respective penultimate games this weekend — relegation will come down to whoever loses their clash next Saturday in Manila.
If they draw next weekend, relegation will come down to points difference, meaning the UAE would be wise to lose to Japan by a lower margin than the Philippines did. The Philippines lost 121-0 to Japan in their opening match in Fukuoka on April 20.
UAE coach Duncan Hall said: “In the last two A5N games between the UAE and Japan, we’ve lost by over 100 points [106-3 away in 2012 and 111-0 at home in 2011]. We’d prefer to keep it less than that this time. In that way I suppose it is damage limitation.
“There has only been one try scored against Japan in this competition [scored by South Korea] but we would like to make that more. The pressure is a good lead into next weekend’s match in the Philippines where five or six thousand spectators are expected.”
Of a situation whereby the UAE can’t fully focus on the Philippines, for fear of succumbing to too heavy a score-line against Japan, Hall added: “We don’t have a lot of depth. We only have 30 players to choose from, so we don’t have the latitude to rest anyone. We’ve got to play hard.”
