LAHORE: Lebanon qualified for the Four-nation Division Three West Asian Rugby Championship final after they comfortably defeated Pakistan 17-3 here at the DHA Stadium on Thursday night.

Now Lebanon face Uzbekistan in the final on Sunday while Pakistan lock horns with India in the third-place playoff the same day.

For Lebanon, Salem El Dessouki and Karim Jamal exhibited magnificent skills and played key role in their team’s big victory. Kashif Khawaja was the only Pakistan player, who offered some sort of resistance and managed to open the account for home team.

Earlier, Uzbekistan shocked India 23-17 in the opening match of the championship.

It may be mentioned here that the event was to be held at the Punjab Stadium, but it was shifted to DHA Stadium in haste due to some security reasons, which were raised after a clash between local police and a religious party.

AFP adds: The Indian team taking part in the international rugby tournament in Pakistan had to take the field with only 12 recognised players on Thursday after members of the squad who are in the army were barred from travelling.

India had been expected to beat Uzbekistan in Thursday’s match but they were beaten 23-17 after being overrun by the opposition.

Agha Hussain, vice-president of the Indian Rugby Football Union, said 14 members of the squad who are serving in the armed forces had been unable to gain clearance from their bosses to enter Pakistan.

“We need a military intelligence clearance for army players to travel abroad. We applied for it and we were waiting for this permission, unfortunately we did not get it,” Hussain told AFP. “As this permission was refused, we had only 12 players.”

Hussain said there was no prospect of the soldiers now getting clearance, but he hoped India would at least be able to field a full 15-man line-up for the match against Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, June 21th, 2014