Rugby: Zambia proceeds to ranking competition

AFTER failing to make it into quarterfinals of the medal competition, Zambia, following their fourth-place position in the Pool C, proceeded to battle it out for ranking with the rest of the teams that had also failed to qualify.

The ranking competition sees teams who finish between third and fourth in each group compete for an honouring final performance placement.

England, Tonga, Sri Lanka, Wales, Uganda, Jamaica, Malaysia and Zambia were the teams that made it to this stage.

Zambia, who had lost to Canada on Saturday afternoon, went to play Tonga in the quarter-finals whom they succumbed 19-7 to.

Laston Mukosa's try and Brian Mbalwe's conversion got the scores for Zambia, who have another match against Sri Lanka on Sunday morning.

Earlier in the day, Zambia squared off against Canada in the final group game of Pool C.

It was the second meeting between the two teams at this stage. But Canada who had run riot last time out with a 47-0 victory, did not have the same winning luxury this time around as they found a Zambian side that had developed a few biting techniques.

Record-setting-scrum-half Lawrence Kaushiku was on hand to break his own scoring achievement as he registered a try while Melvin Banda provided another. Canada won 24-12.

"It's a very amazing feeling, I'm happy that my team-mates have been here to support me. Its very awesome," Kaushiku told the media after the match against Canada.

"From here we need to stay longer in camp, that will build team cohesion. We had some nerves at the start but we kept going.

The result seemed to matter little to the Coventry Stadium fanbase who nonetheless applauded the team for a spirited showing on Day Two of the competition.

Team skipper Israel Kalumba said: "Talking about the first game, it wasn't a good day but we learnt our mistakes. We played against Wales we made our mistakes but better than Fiji.

Kalumba

The game we played against Canada was better than yesterday's games, we are learning at each and every stage,"