ICONZ end Borneo Eagles supremacy
The Borneo Eagles' three-year reign as the Borneo Sevens champions came to an end yesterday.
SANDAKAN: The Borneo Eagles three-year reign as the Borneo Sevens champions came to an end yesterday.
Debutants ICONZ were their conquerers at the Eagles Sports Arena here after the Australian side clinched a narrow 17-14 win in the Men’s Cup final.
The victory also showed that ICONZ’s 22-19 win in the group stage were no fluke.
Both ICONZ and the Borneo Eagles made it into the final after beating Sri Lanka 17-12 and Hong Kong Dragons 17-14 respectively.
It set up a mouth-watering clash between the two pretournament favourites.
ICONZ started strongly going on the offensive from the start and unsurpirisingly they took a 7-0 lead before extending it to 12-0.
The Borneo Eagles had only themselves to blame when they just missed inches of scoring a try of their own shortly after as ICONZ gained possession to nullify the danger.
The home team did score a try to make it 7-12 before halftime to ensure a fighting chance when they resumed play.
ICONZ started the second period by extending their lead to 17-7 but to the Borneo Eagles credit, they fought hard to make it 14-17.
The Borneo Eagles launched a last minute attack but again they lost the ball in a promising position high up the pitch which allowed the oppositions to close out the game.
ICONZ coach Andrew Curtain praised his players for their display in the final against a very good opponents.
“Great final. Borneo (Eagles) put up a real good fight (but) good to see the boys fought hard and came through and won in the end.
“We were very confident. They are top class athletes in Borneo so we had to stay humble and make sure that we didn’t get too cocky but still maintain confidence in our ability so we backed ourselves,” he said after the match.
Curtain also admitted that the match could have had ended differently had the Borneo Eagles did their things right in the game.
“There were a couple of decisions they made that if they did it the other way, it would be a different result
“We were confident we could win as long as we played well. One slip up and it’s a different story,” added Curtain .
Meanwhile, Sabah Eagles won the Men’s Plate final after beating Mellowpuff Barbarians 12-0.
The Men’s Bowl title went to Thailand after a 24-12 win over Belgium Barbarians and the Sabah Sukma squad winning the Men’s Shield final 24-0 against Tawau Rugby.
The men’s competition of this international club rugby tournament, which received sanction from the Asia Rugby, attracted 14 teams.