18 August 2019 – A glorious day in Kunming, China saw the Bunga Raya Junior produced a scintillating display to come back in the second half and win the Asia Rugby Under 18 championship. To make it even better, Malaysia overcame the tournament host, China 14 – 10 in the final.
Malaysia had a perfect record in the pool match with 4 wins out of 4. However, it was not a walk in the park for the team as they have to fight for every win. Malaysia got off to a positive start with 22 – 7 win over Chinese Taipei. They also got the revenge over Hong Kong, who beat them in the final of Asia School months back with 21 – 12 win. Malaysia ended the day on top of the table with another outstanding display to snatch the win over South Korea with 28 – 21 scoreline.
It was a rehearsal of the final as Malaysia beat China in the last pool match with 19 – 14 scoreline, with both
The first half of the final belong to the host as they took 10 – 0. Malaysia had to find the way back and a quick tap from Faiq Aslah created space for A’mmar Mohd Zamri to score Malaysia first try in the final. Faiq added 2 more from the conversion. Malaysia finally got the try the wish for through Md Fuad Md Salleh as they took the lead for the first time in the final with Md Daim Zainuddin coolly slot home the resulting conversion.
Malaysia beat China 14 – 10 to win the Asia Rugby 7s Under 18 championship.
Photos courtesy of Asia Rugby