May 12, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1428

LAHORE, May 11: Pakistan will play its first ever international rugby Test at home when it meets Thailand at the Defence Stadium, on Saturday.

President Pakistan Rugby Union, Fauzi Ahmed Khawaja, told a press conference on Friday.

Manager of Thailand team Adisak Hemyoo, who with a 20-member team arrived on Thursday night also attended the press conference.

"Going by the rankings, we are heavy underdogs, and Thailand are considered a relatively formidable opponent in the region. But last year we had beaten the Philippines and Guam, also ranked much higher than us. So, it would be a mistake to underestimate us also," the president said.

He said in fact it was the first match of three-nation competition of Group-IV of the region and the winners would qualify for Group-III. The third team was Taiwan.

Pakistan will play Taiwan in Thailand on May 16. As the Taiwanese would be there to play the hosts, Thailand, on May 19, PRU decided to play the them there to avoid the expense of visiting Taiwan

Thailand manager Hemyoo said his team ranked 52 in the world ranking and came here to win the tie.

"The home team enjoys some advantages but we have a strong side quite able to overcome all the challenges," he said.

He said Thailand would be playing 46 international matches, while Pakistan its 6th.

Meanwhile, a PRU official Arif Saeed said the match would be of 15-a-side with two halves of 40 minutes each.

Arif said a training camp of 26 probables was already in progress at the Defence Stadium under the coaching of Rizwan Malik.

Probables: Aftab Qureshi, Khurram Haroon, Taimur Zia Butt, Hammad Safdar, Sulman Wayne, Sajid Umer, Bilal Ahmed, Zeeshan Ata, Mohammad Babar, Sair Riaz, Fahad Ali, Rehan Mansoor, Qamber Ali Haroon, Sahir Aslam, Umer Usman, Zaheer Niazi, Shirjil , Junaid Malik, Anwar-ul-Haq, Fareed Khan, Shahzad, Arslan Zahid, Nasseem Mannan, Shahbaz Muneer, Imran Arshad, Fawzan Wain.