Thailand upset Australia in smashing 44-24 final win

Thailand won the King’s Cup 80 Rugby tournament with a smashing 44-24 victory over Australia after leading 31-12 at half-time last night at the Chai Stadium in Phuket. It was a fitting finale to an exciting King’s Cup 80 Rugby tournament and a large crowd was thrilled with the Thai victory.

Australia were the favourites to capture the majestic King’s Cup and they got off to a flying start when in the 8th minute, their Number 8, Mathew Hamil scored the first try of the match, which went unconverted.

But seven minutes later, Thai left-flanker Supakorn Charassowaphak crossed Australia’s goalline for Art-ong Prasertying to convert and in the 18th the Thais struck again.

Their fly-half Thanaphat Im-jai touched down and Art-ong made no mistake with the conversion.

Five minutes later, in the 23rd, the ‘never-say-die’ Aussies struck back through Mat Paton for Phil Prior to convert and the scoreboard read 14-12.

However, the Thais came back. They struck a purple patch, unfolding six minutes of dazzling play, after fullback Art-ong had put over a 30-metre penalty.

Left-centre Pongrapee Noraratana scored off a splendid three-quarter move for Prasert to add the extras and a minute before half-time, right-winger Kornpong Wongsalangka ran past the Australian defence to score a fine try, which Prasert converted and the scoreboard read 31-12.

After half-time, in the 45th minute Australia scored an unconverted try through Sam Sanhen and for the next 15 minutes it wa a see-saw battle to gain the ascendancy and it was the Thai team which shone. A try by Pongrapee which Art-ong converted, a penalty-kick from 25 metres which Art-ong put over and a superb drop goal by art-ong saw them stretch the lead to 44-17.

In the 69th the Aussies reduced the lead when left-centre Grant Bothfield notched a try and converted it to reduce the lead to 44-24.

The Bowl was won by Sri Lanka which beat Phuket, 19-7 after being led 7-5 at half-time.

It was a fine second half rally that helped the Sri Lankans to win.

They scored two good goals after being behind in the first period of action.

Phuket set the scoreboard in motion, when in the seventh minute fullback Chindanai Chaikote joined the three-quarters and crossed the Sri Lankan goalline for Supawit Muangmee to convert.

The next 15 minutes saw both teams try hard to penetrate the opposing defences and it was Sri Lanka which succeeded when their left flanker, K.B.M Kobbekaduwa broke through and touched down for an unconverted try.

Shortly after half-time, Sri Lanka’s left-lock G.S.Ratnayake notched a good try off a forwards rush, for S.Knowlton to add the extras and take the lead 12-7. In the 61st minute the Sri Lankans put the issue beyond doubt when fullback Wave Kumara, found a gap and burst through to score and Knowlton made no mistake with the conversion. Which saw theSri Lankans wind up with their score at 19-7, to bag the Bowl.

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