UAE 13
Singapore 30
The UAE suffered their second relegation in as many seasons as Singapore ran in four tries to win what was effectively a Division I relegation play-off 30-13 at 7he Sevens.
Visiting wing Luke McCabe ran in a hat-trick, while centre Edward Carne grabbed Singapore’s opening try. Scrum-half Suhaimi Amran kicked seven points, before replacement Stuart Lakin added a late penalty.
First-half tries from Jono Bester and Neil Pommerel briefly put the hosts in front at 10-7 but a team that had only trained together properly for the last two weeks ran out of gas in the second 40 minutes.
Back-to-back relegation means the UAE will almost certainly renew battle with Qatar, who play host to this season’s Division II tournament, in 2015.
“We prepared as well as we could, there was a bounce here and a bounce there that didn’t go our way,” performance manager Roelof Kotze said.
“(But) I don’t think we need to look for excuses. We have a squad which is only recently together, we have to work hard in the off-season, recruit one or two new guys to bolster the squad and I think we have started on a route that can hopefully take us places.”
Singapore captain Peter McFeely was well aware of the problems faced by the UAE given he is good friends with UAE captain Adam Telford, and prop Graham Murphy. And he felt Kotze’s side had put up in a decent performance despite defeat.
“Fair play to the UAE for putting up a fairly strong fight and challenge,” he said. “I thought the performance was pretty commendable given the lack of preparation time they’ve really had.”
For a moment towards the end of the first half it looked as though the hosts might survive. Having fallen behind to Carne’s converted score, the UAE fought back and when Pommerel bulldozed over for a try on debut, they were 10-7 ahead.
It could have been a bigger lead too, but Singapore charged Sargent’s conversion when they shouldn’t and the kick sailed narrowly wide.
Minutes later they had reclaimed the lead with McCabe’s first of the game, and then almost from kick-off, Adel Al Hendi dropped a high ball to allow the winger to canter in for another.
Suddenly it was 19-10 to the visitors, and even though lock Murray Wyllie was sent to the bin just before the break, the UAE were never able to make their man advantage count.
After Amran and Charlie Sargent had exchanged penalties, McCabe completed his hat-trick to put the visitors two scores in front. Kotze’s side never gave in, but a mixture of handling errors and poor decisions meant they rarely looked like closing that gap.
A late Lakin penalty only confirmed their fate.
“Although it was gutting to lose, I think by dropping down a division we can rebuild and restructure,” UAE skipper Telford said. “There are a lot of changes happening and we will have to take a step back to go forwards again.”