Pakistan is hosting this year’s Asia Rugby Championship Division III C tournament, with two matches being held at the Pakistan Rugby Academy in Lahore.
The winner of the two-test series between Pakistan and Uzbekistan will be promoted to Division II in 2020, which will be a acting as a Rugby World Cup 2023 qualifier.
Both the Uzbekistan and Pakistan teams are coming into the competition with squads exhibiting a good combination of experience and youth.
Pakistan won the first game 44-13 on Sunday in what proved a very exciting match of two distinct halves, and will be favourites to gain promotion on Wednesday.
With 10 minutes to the half-time whistle two tries, by Okhunjou Jumaev and Bakhitiyor Sirojiddinov, gave the visitors a slim 13-10 lead at the break.
But i the second half Pakistan’s most capped player and team captain, Kashif Khawaja, inspired the turnaround with Ali Shahid, Daud Gill, Ahmad Waseem, Ali Khan and Muhammad Nasir all scoring tries.
Fly-half Khawaja marshalled his troops brilliantly and played the key role in the team’s win.
“Uzbekistan is a tough team but we prepared well for the big event, which is being played on home soil after a long time,” said Khawaja.
“Hosting international rugby is a great step towards promotion of this game in the country, and for this, we will play even better in the next match, and try our best to clean-sweep Uzbekistan as it will ensure we qualify for the Asia Rugby Division II.”
Pakistan will take on Uzbekistan in the second and final Test on Wednesday.
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Pakistan V Uzbekistan
Date: 1 st may 2019
KO 4 pm (Local time +5GMT)
Pakistan Rugby Academy Lahore
The match will be Live Streamed >>>>>> Link
