UAE drew first blood in the opening minutes of the match through a successful penalty off the boot of James Ham. However the host side’s glory was short lived as Belgium answered immediately with an unchallenged try ran in by winger Thibaut Andre which was successfully converted by the man who was to become the visitor’s danger man, Alan Williams.

At half-time the visitors were up 40-3 over the hosts and the second half saw Belgium add 54 uncontested points to the scoreboard, of which Williams contributed an impressive 4 tries and 12 conversions. The full time score read 94-3 in favour of Belgium.

“We wanted to show the UAE team respect and treat them the same as any other opposing team, so we prepared as if it was a top-level game” said Belgium coach Richard McClintock.

“It was always going to be a tough 80 minutes” reflected UAE coach and performance manager Duncan Hall. Belgium took advantage of a few turn overs, lost scrums and a few bad kicks,” added Hall.

In the second game, Champions Hong Kong experienced a first half scare at the hands of a powerful Zimbabwean team walking into half time 7-6 behind, and in the dying seconds of the half the deficit could have been larger except for a disallowed try. Hong Kong’s senior coach, Leigh Jones half time chat appeared to spark life back into his charges where they ran in 16 points to post a 22-7 victory.