Kazakhstan take Asia Pacific crown

Kazakhstan have been crowned Asia Pacific Women's 7s champions as they beat Papua New Guinea 22 - 15 in the final of the competition held in Borneo over the weekend.

The tournament is a warm-up event for the Asian Games in China later this month and seven international women's teams took part. Cook Islands defeated Singapore in the Plate final to finish third.

Competing teams at the event were Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Kazakhstan, Cook Islands and India.

On day one of the competition the Kazakhs - featuring players who were part of their recent World Cup campaign - took control in group one with high-scoring victories over Tonga and the Cook Islands while Papua New Guinea topped the second group with three convincing victories.

The surprise of the first day of action was Singapore's victory over a more fancied Samoa side. After their first pool game loss to Papua New Guinea (28-0), the Singapore side surprised the crowd with their spirited performance and took the lead by just a conversion in the first half. The second half was a tense one with one Singapore player being yellow carded for a team offence but Singapore held their ground and were rewarded with a historical win against a far more well known side.

On day two there were some tight quarter final clashes with Singapore just edging out Tonga and the Cook Islands managing to hold off Samoa in a tense game. The results meant Kazakhstan and Papua New Guinea and the Kazakhs were through to the final to be played on day three of the competition.

The final was a highly entertaining affair with both teams trading tries in the first half, before going into the break tied at 10 - 10.

Kazakhstan upped their game in the second half to build a 22 - 10 lead and although Papua New Guinea threatened to comeback after scoring a try late in the match, the Asian number ones held on to win the inaugural tournament.

In the Plate final which decided the third and fourth placing, Cook Islands defeated Singapore 10 - 5 to end their tournament on a high note while Samoa took fifth spot with a 14-7 win over Tonga in the Bowl final.

Next weekend Singapore and India will be in action again on the 7s stage as they join Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan and Indonesia at theSingapore Cricket Club 7s.

Day One Results:

Group A

Kazakhstan 29 Cook Island 0Kazakhstan 24 Tonga 0Tonga 25 Cook Island 0

Group B

Singapore 0 Papua New Guinea 24India 0 Samoa 41Singapore 7 Samoa 5India 0 Papau New Guinea 38Singapore 7 India 10Samoa 10 Papau New Guinea 12

Day Two Results:

Quarterfinals

Kazakhstan vs India 50-5Cook Islands vs Samoa 12-10Papua New Guinea byeSingapore vs Tonga 12-5

Plate Semifinals

Samoa vs India 12-0Tonga bye

Cup Semifinals

Kazakhstan vs Cook Islands 19-0Papua New Guinea vs Singapore 54-0

Final Day Results:

Bowl Final: Samoa 14 Tonga 7

Plate Final:Cook Island 10 Singapore 5

Cup Final: Kazakhstan 22 Papua New Guinea 10