KUALA LUMPUR: Despite crashing out at the quarterfinal stage, national rugby sevens coach Saizul Hafifi Md Noor remains pleased with his squads' performance at the final leg of the Asia Sevens Series in Sri Lanka, which ended on Sunday.
Hafifi said he was forced to field an inexperienced team in Colombo, but was pleasantly surprised by the team's performance.
Malaysia finished sixth in the competition, which was held at the Racecourse International Rugby Stadium.
"We were forced to bring a relatively inexperienced squad to Sri Lanka, as many of our main players were unavailable, as they were sitting their university examinations and were tied up with (study) assignments.
"The team did well to score first against Sri Lanka and hold them 5-5 at half-time. They also came close to beating the Philippines.
"They showed that they are capable of competing with the big teams, but were perhaps a little let down by their inexperience.
"I want to thank the new players who were brought in for doing a good job, especially Hashraffuddin Basir, Muhammad Azizul Hakim Che Oon and Zaiheri Zumardi.
"We have to keep working hard and keep improving so we can perform at a high level at the Indonesia Asian Games next year," said Hafifi.
The team lost 22-5 to hosts Sri Lanka in the Cup quarterfinals (main competition). They bounced back with a 17-0 win over Taiwan in the plate semi-finals, before being edged 19-17 by the Philippines in the plate final (fifth place decider).
Malaysia ended the Asia Sevens Series season ranked seventh overall with 10 points from the three legs of the series.