by Dave Delgado
Guam - Congratulations
to Guam's Men's National Rugby Team for picking up the win against the
Indonesian Rhinos 38-17 over in Malaysia in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations Division
III Semifinals. Team Guam led 19-3 early on
behind tries from Steven Sablan, Vinson Calvo and Paul Estaquio. Gerard Aguon
made good on 3 conversion kicks to keep Guam
ahead. Indonesia
would score twice and convert two kicks to trail 26-17 at the half.
Estaquio and
Jesse Manglona scored 2 more tries in the second half to keep Team Guam's
championship dreams alive. Estaquio ended the match with 3 tries while Gerard
Aguon finished with 8 points off of 4 conversion kicks. India will now face Guam
in the Finals set for Friday June 1st at 4:30 pm. This is the first time the
two teams have met head to head in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations and just the third
time overall. India holds an edge with one win
from the past two encounters in 2007, while the teams drew 8-all back in 2005.
Willie
Heteraka, Team Guam's coach, told KUAM Sports, "We skipped the ruck to be
up 19-10 in the first half and they really dug deep to and I was very
impressed. They put us under bus to be up 19-17 and then we scored 1 right
before the half and I was really impressed with the guys."
Santos added, "We came
hard and we came fast and we gave it all we had. Our opposition was really good
so we didn't want to underestimate them. That was pretty much our game plan,
just go hard and play them like they were our best team."
