Embassy of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan lived up to their billing as tournament favourites by beating host nation China 34-5 in the final of the 2007 Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) Women’s Championship at the National Sports Training Centre, Haigeng in Kunming on Sunday.

More than half of Kazakhstan’s squad had played in last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in Canada and they dominated from the outset in the final against the defending champions, who were missing a couple of key players through injury.

The strong running of flanker Anna Yakovleva saw her regularly break through the Chinese defensive line as Kazakhstan established a 19-0 lead at half time with tries from Anastassiya Khamova, Maryana Balashova and Irina Radizivil.

Kazakhstan had three players sin-binned in the match, two of them within five minutes of each other in the second half, but increased their lead to 34-0 with two tries from Olga Rudoy and another from Irina Amossova.

However China, without number 8 Bai Ying and full back Liu Yan who had impressed before suffering knee injuries in their 39-6 defeat of Singapore in their opening match, had the final say with a last gasp try from full back Lui Tingting.