Duncan Hall foresees trouble ahead in Asia Five Nations Challenge

Dubai: UAE coach Duncan Hall is already pre-empting more Asian Five Nations challenges next season, after being relegated from the Top Five following a 24-8 defeat away to the Philippines on Saturday.

Both the UAE and the Philippines needed a win from their last game to avoid slipping down into Division One, after losing their previous three matches in the elite division.

UAE fly-half Andrew Russell missed three long-range penalties within three minutes midway through the first half, which if converted would have cut the Philippines’ early 12-0 lead to just three points.

Captain and openside flanker Renier Els eventually got UAE off the mark before the interval to take the score to 12-5 and Russell finally converted a penalty after the break to edge closer at 12-8.

But, the UAE couldn’t take advantage when the Philippines had hooker Graeme Hogan sin-binned and when he returned to the field and scored before the hour it was all but over. A ten-minute power cut disrupted play before Justin Coveney then stole another try for the Philippines just before full-time.

Hall said: “We’re disappointed to be relegated for the first time since 2009 but fair play to the Philippines they did well. We suffered in the humid conditions as we are used to a dry heat in Dubai. The ball became hard for us to manage and we turned it over 14 times in the first half through handling errors. We gave them too much possession at the end of the day.

“We now need to review where we are at and plan how we return to the Top Five from Division One next year. But with the average age of our squad at 33 years old, we are still going to face the same challenges we did this year. We will need to identify some new younger players now and work intensively with them over the next 12 months.”

ASIAN FIVE NATIONS TOP FIVE RESULTS

Japan 121-0 Philippines

Hong Kong 53-7 UAE

UAE 10-75 South Korea

Hong Kong 0-38 Japan

Japan 64-5 South Korea

Philippines 20-59 Hong Kong

UAE 3-93 Japan

South Korea 62-19 Philippines

South Korea 43-22 Hong Kong

Philippines 24-8 UAE

ASIAN FIVE NATIONS STANDINGS

P W L D Df Bp Pts

Japan 4 4 0 0 308 4 24

South Korea 4 3 1 0 70 3 18

Hong Kong 4 2 2 0 26 2 12

Philippines 4 1 3 0 187 1 6

UAE 4 0 4 0 217 0 0