A vastly improved UAE had to be content with a sixth placed finish in the second leg of the Hong Kong Asian Under-20s Sevens on Saturday.

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Roelof Kotze’s mix of Emirati and expatriates only won two of their six games, losing four, but a much improved second day and decent performance overall had the players in high spirits.

Their only heavy defeats came on Friday against eventual winners Hong Kong (34-12) and Malaysia (33-12), finalists in the first leg back in August, while they lost by two points three times yesterday.

They were beaten 21-19 by losing finalists South Korea in their first game before beating China 20-14, thanks to an Iziq Foa’i hat-trick, to record their second win of the weekend, adding to Friday’s 19-12 triumph over Thailand.

They missed out on playing in the third and fourth place final after losing 21-19 to Chinese Taipei and were then beaten 17-15 by China in the very last play of the fifth and sixth placed final to finish with two points.

Added to their solitary point from August’s first leg, the UAE finished the overall series in a threeway tie for sixth place with China and Singapore.

Captain Adel Al Hendi said: “It was one of the best tournaments the UAE has ever played. We could have done better but the margins were so close.”

Dubai Exiles full-back Charlie Sargent added: “Saturday was the best we played all weekend; we received a lot of praise. We missed out on the third/fourth place final by two points and were beaten by China in the last two seconds.”