India made a strong late bid but it came too late as Qatar managed to finish winners by 34 points (5 tries, 3 conversions, 1 penalty) to 25 (3 tries, 2 conversions, 2 penalties) in their Asia Cup Division One rugby championship match for the third place played at the Race Course ground in Colombo yesterday.
Qatar made use of their heavily built players to pile on the points early in the first half to take a 26- 6 lead at half time.
They scored tries through James Phillips, Nicholas lock, Pita Baracibi and Iliesa Rakabu within the first twenty minutes to enjoy a 20-0 lead. India was successful with two penalties taken by Deepak Kumar in the first half.
However, the second half had both teams taking time to settle down and India struck midway through a try by Pradeep Tanwar that was converted by Deepak Kumar.
Qatar scored twice more through a penalty and an unconverted try by James Phillips.
Thereafter it was India who took over the scoring and scored two tries through Vallabh Patil and Nareej. Deepak was able to convert only one try and this gave them the 25 points that reduced the difference by nine points.
Ishanka Abeykoon refereed
(TBR)
