KUALA LUMPUR: The national men's squad settled for sixth place from eight teams overall in the opening leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series in South Korea today (Sept 8).
The squad lost all its pool A matches yesterday to China (39-0), Japan (21-0) and Thailand (15-7).
Malaysia were down to nine men on the second day today after losing Adeen Baharudin and Harith Anhar to shoulder injuries while Halim Abu Kassim had picked up a red card during the group stage.
The squad were still able to beat Singapore 10-0 in the plate semi-final before again going down to Thailand, this time 22-5, in the fifth-place decider.
The women's competition saw Malaysia losing to China (29-0) and gave Hong Kong a scare before losing 17-15. They beat Singapore 22-0 in their final pool B match yesterday.
Malaysia lost 17-7 to United Arab Emirates in the plate semi-final before beating Singapore 15-7 in the seventh-place decider.
National women's team coach Faiz Samsukhidir was pleased to see his charges achieve their target.
"Overall I was pleased with my players' performances, they really gave it their all and were hungry to succeed," said Faiz.
The second leg of the Sevens Series will be held in Hangzhou, China on Sept 21-24.