New head coach helps steer one of the lowest-ranked teams in the world to Division 1 of the Asia Rugby Championship.
The resumption of the Asia Rugby Championship has been a long time in coming because of COVID-19 but the recent Division 2 play-off final doubleheader between Thailand and Pakistan was well worth the wait.
After two pulsating ties, just one point separated the sides with Pakistan, under their new head coach Gert Mulder, ultimately celebrating victory, 39-38 on aggregate.
Pakistan lost the first game 20-15 after leading for the majority of the match despite having one player red-carded and another two sent to the sin-bin.
And they trailed Thailand for 65 minutes of the second game before completing a stunning comeback victory, by 24 points to 18.
“It is something massive, and I am happy to have been a part of that. It is one of the best experiences of my life, especially because nobody was giving us a chance and we had a really, really short time to prepare with just three weekend-long camps,” Mulder said.
“What the players achieved in those three weeks was outstanding. We didn’t think they would get the concepts so quickly but they bought into what we wanted them to do straight away. It was awesome and it was all due to great leadership on the field.
Source: world.rugby