Early skirmish with Asiad rivals

national sevens squad got the chance to test their form against some of their Asian Games rivals at the Asia Invitational Sevens in Japan yesterday.

The team opened their campaign in the league stage of the tournament in Sapporo with a 1410 win over Taiwan and then clinched a 12-5 victory against the Japan Youth team.

Malaysia, however, went down 29-12 to the Japan Sevens Development Squad (Japan SDS) in their final group game.

Their second place finish in the league stage means they will face Japan Youth once again in the semi-finals today while Japan SDS play Taiwan.

National sevens head coach Saizul Hafifi Md Noor said he was satisfied with his men’s performance.

“The team played well in all three matches, especially as the weather is quite cold,” said Hafifi.

“We managed to exert control during the matches except for the game against Japan SDS who are a better side than us.

“We still have the semi-finals to play and and I hope our boys can get a good result.”

The tournament is part of the national squad’s final preparation before the Asiad where Japan and Malaysia have been drawn in Group B with Taiwan and Indonesia.

Japan are the defending champions in the Asian Games. Malaysia finished ninth in the quadrennial competition four years ago.