Indonesia celebrated their first ever Test victory on home soil after beating Laos 23-11 on Tuesday in the second of three matches in the HSBC Asian Five Nations Regional Tournament taking place in Jakarta.
Laos had beaten Cambodia 33-0 in the opening fixture on Saturday 12 July, claiming the Mekong Cup in the process with their backline catching the eye and so promising an interesting match up against a physical Indonesian side.
They may have been smaller than the hosts, but Laos rose to the challenge and opened the scoring with second row Phelamphong Nachanti capping a flowing move to score in the corner as early as the fourth minute.
Indonesia, though, began to assert their size advantage with second row Stephen Barber scoring two tries to give the hosts a 12-5 advantage after 20 minutes, a lead which grew with a penalty by fly half Kirk Arundale before the break.
The sin-binning of Indonesia full back Peter Ben in the 47th minute gave Laos a boost and they used their man advantage to earn two penalties, both of them kicked by fly half Chris Mastaglio to cut the deficit to 15-11 with 20 minutes to go.
Arundale edged Indonesia further ahead with a penalty, but despite some good half breaks by Laos centre Anoutsith Chaleunsouk and wings Phakkam Sengsoulivong and Anoulack On Khamthay they were unable to find a way through.
It was therefore left to Indonesia prop Ramon Yodha to score with the last play of the game to seal the historic victory and mean that if they can beat Cambodia in the final game on Saturday, the hosts will be crowned champions of the Jakarta regional event.
