Rugby match-throwing farce rocks National Games

China's National Games was rocked by a scandal on Tuesday after the Beijing team threw the women's rugby final against the Shandong team in a protest to controversial refereeing.

Beijing had been widely favored for the women's gold in rugby's debut at the National Games, but Shangdong scored two tries to jump 10-0 up soon after the start.

The Spanish umpire awarded Shandong another try in the second half, a decision which Beijing players claimed "wrong". The Beijing players then refused to play and stood still on the pitch, only to see their opponents score easily and eventually win by a scoreline of 71-0.

"The umpire was biased in favor of the Shandong team. It's too obvious," Beijing coach Jiang Xuming said angrily after the game.

But rugby's jury committee at the ongoing National Games was quick to defend the umpire.

"We've come to the conclusion that the umpire's ruling is fair and correct after our review of the match videos," the committee said in a statement.

Three foreign rugby umpires were invited to officiate at these National Games in an attempt to reduce refereeing controversies.

The incident also triggered a brawl between Adam Mcdonald, an Australian coach for the Jiangsu rugby team, and Beijing's coaching staff, after Mcdonald, who watched the Beijing-Shandong match from the stands, scolded the Beijing team for breach of sportsmanship.

According to the medal counting system adopted for the 12th National Games, the Shandong women's rugby team's victory will be awarded two gold medals.

The quirky counting system awards three gold medals to the winning team of any of "three big ball games" - soccer, volleyball and basketball, and the winners of any other team event two National Games golds.

Late in the day, Shandong came from 0-12 down to beat the Hong Kong team 14-12 in the men's rugby final. Beijing came third.

The National Games, the country's mini-Olympics, were first held in 1959. In China's gold-obsessed sports system, winning the National Games title can be as important as winning an Olympic gold to the athletes and officials as well. And as a result of it, cheating, match-fixing and corruption are common.