DUBAI — The UAE’s national rugby team all but secured their Asian Five Nations (A5N), Top Five status for next season with a 46-31 victory over Kazakhstan at 7he Sevens ground on Friday afternoon.

Duncan Hall’s XV registered 29 unanswered points without reply during the opening 40 minutes in sweltering conditions and withstood a Kazakh fightback thereafter to run out deserving winners.

They now have a bye next weekend prior to travelling to newly-promoted South Korea later this month, presumably safe in the knowledge that it appears unlikely that Kazakhstan have enough class to trouble Hong Kong or South Korea on this evidence.

The UAE began this third-round game strongly after only five minutes when, following a wayward Kazakh pass in their half, the ball was fed left and wide for outside centre Tim Fletcher to dot down in the corner. Fly half Murray Strang couldn’t though convert his vice captain’s try.

The following 18 minutes then saw both sides commit handling errors in promising positions, with Kazakhstan having one attack held up over the line, while only a last-ditch intervention from Steve Smith prevented Pavel Leonov profiting from a cross-field kick.

From the resultant Kazakh penalty and subsequent lineout deep in UAE territory, the hosts snatched a fumbled ball and the deceptively-agile Greg Thompson led the breakaway upfield.

His charge provided the initial impetus for Strang to carry on the momentum up through the middle and his offload released Brett Williams for the UAE’s second score of the afternoon.

Strang kicked the extras and, although he missed a subsequent penalty, he nailed another for the home side to lead 15-0 after half an hour.

That advantage was stretched out to 20-0 six minutes later as full-back Imad Reyal found himself in sufficient space and his dazzling footwork and electric speed did the rest past some Kazakh arms clawing at air.

Strang slotted over the additional two points and a commanding first-half display was rounded off when scrum-half Patrick Hegarty crossed over under the posts, allowing Strang the simplest of kicks for 29-0.

Kazakhstan eventually got on the board early in the second period, with Nikita Trofimov finally breaching the UAE’s defensive line for an unconverted try to reduce the deficit to 24.

But, the buffer upon the resumption was restored when an incisive break let in Greg Thompson and he registered a deserved score.

Kazakhstan were determined to make inroads into the UAE’s points cushion nonetheless and tries by Dmitriy Tronin and Trofimov, both converted by Ildar Abdrazakab, brought it back to a 15-point game at 34-19.

Anton Makarenka’s score brought Kazakhstan to within 10 to set up a nervy 10 minutes, yet any lingering doubts were swiftly allayed by Reyal’s sublime second shortly afterwards.

UAE captain Alistair Thompson fittingly registered his team’s seventh and last try of the game before Tronin barrelled over a scant consolation, converted by Abdrazakab, near the end.

Teams

UAE: 1). Graham Murphy. 2). Peter Sampson. 3). Daniel Boatwright. 4). Greg Thompson. 5). Simon Osborne. 6). Brett Williams. 7). David Matasio. 8). Alistair Thompson. 9). Patrick Hegarty. 10). Murray Strang. 11). Steve Smith. 12). Jonathon O’Connor. 13). Tim Fletcher. 14). John Fawls. 15). Imad Reyal.

Replacements: 16). Charles Lilley. 17). Christopher Jones-Griffiths. 18). Tristan Barnett. 19). Sam Cook. 20). Antoine Bertheuil. 21). Sean Hurley. 22). Mohammed Al Sulaiman.

Kazakhstan: 1). Andrey Khmorin. 17). Maxim Taifanov. 3). Vladimir Chernyh. 4). Anton Makarenka. 21). Yevaeniy Shekvrov. 18). Nikita Trofimov. 7). Nikolay Zhuravlev. 8). Serik Zhanseitov. 9). Ahmetzhan Baratov. 10). Daulet Akymbekov. 11). Alexandr Kireev. 12). Ildar Abdrazakab. 13). Alexandr Zakharov. 14).Pavel Leonov. 15). Sergey Konev. Replacements: 24). Sergey Menshikov. 2). Tairzhan Arzuev. 20). Dmitriy Tronin. 19). Alexandr Khokhlov. 28). Evgeniy Romanov. 23). Vitaliy Pakhomol.

alex@khaleejtimes.com