The Pakistan Rugby Union (PRU) held a press conference at a local hotel here on Monday to announce the under-20 squad for the Asian Under-20 Division III Rugby Championship being held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from September 6 to 12. The championship is being organised by ARFU (Asian Rugby Football Union) under the auspices of the International Rugby Board and is being hosted by the Uzbekistan Rugby Federation. The other teams taking part in the tournament are Singapore, Kazakhstan and hosts Uzbekistan.
President PRU Fawzi Khwaja said: “This is part of our effort to start developing players at a young age as all the participating players are new caps. Pakistan’s first participation in age grade rugby was when Pakistan hosted the Asian Under-19 Championship here in the city in which 11 international teams competed which was also a world cup qualifier, was a highly successful event with over 450 participants.” Head coach Rizwan Malik along with the U-20 Coach Fahad Ali and Shakeel were also present there.
President PRU Fawzi Khawaja announced the names of the final team. Abu Baker Khan will lead the team while Abdul Ahad Latif Ch will act as his assistant. Tariq Niazi will be manager while coaches will be Fahad Ali and Shakeel. Dr Rashid will be Physio while Major Umer farooq will be laison manger.
Pak squad: Abdul Ahad Latif Ch, Ammar Ahmed, Atif Rehman, Ayub Zafar, Ch M Ali Riaz, Daud Gill, Fahad Masood, Hassan Mukahtiar Shah, Kamal Ahmed, M Abu Bakar Khan, M Ahsanul Haq, M Faizan, M Ghalib Javed, M Jawahir Rathore, M Khalid, M Sadoon Tahir, Nadeem Abbas, Nasir Mehmood, Osman Ahmad Ch, Raza Jaffri Syed, Shafaqat Ali, Shahbaz Malik, Shamvill Khan, Tauheed Ali, Yasir Nadeem and Zeeshah Munir.