Arabian side disappoint in Kandy

The Arabian Gulf's sevens coaching team will return home to Dubai today with much to ponder after their side's disappointing display at the Singer Sri Lanka International Sevens.

The Arabian Gulf's sevens coaching team of Mike Lunjevich and Wayne Marsters will return home to Dubai today with much to ponder after their side's disappointing display at the Singer Sri Lanka International Sevens. Lunjevich and the captain Stephen Cooper had specified a place in the last four as being the minimum of the Gulf's ambitions before they heading to the central Sri Lankan hill-town of Kandy.

Yet they were only able to finish seventh, following final day defeats to Thailand and Chinese Taipei. They did salvage some pride by turning over the Thais 17-7 in their final game of the competition, in what was the play-off for the wooden spoon. However, losses to sides, who they would expect to demolish in the 15s game such as Malaysia and Thailand, over the course of the weekend were alarming.

Progress has been slow in the abbreviated form of the game for the Gulf. They will need to show a marked improvement if they are to compete with the best at the Dubai Rugby Sevens at the end of November, and next year's Sevens World Cup. However, they do have a week-long coaching clinic with the highly-successful South Africa supremo Paul Treu planned for next month. Malaysia, who only beat the Gulf thanks to a late try during their opening day group match, were the surprise winners in Kandy.

They beat Korea 31-21 in the final. @Email:[e-mail]