Lankan women rugby team wins Plate c’ship

Lankan women rugby team wins Plate c’ship

Sri Lanka turned a new leaf in women’s rugby when they annexed the Plate Championship at the HSBC Asian Rugby Sevens Series first leg worked off in Bangsean, Thailand yesterday.

This was easily Sri Lanka’s best ever performance at a major international sevens tournament having previously won the Bowl Championship and having emerged runners up in the same event last year in India.

The Sri Lanka women’s rugby team after having experienced mixed fortunes on the opening day of the tournament came back magnificently to beat a strong Singapore outfit by 17 points to 5 points in the Plate Championship final encounter.

Their success was even more significant as they were able to secure the overall fifth position in the tournament which will give them more confidence ahead of the second leg which will be worked off in November in India.

Sri Lanka got off to a good start in the important final and managed to build up a close 10 nil lead at half time following two superb unconverted tries from scrum half Nadeeka Munasinghe and wing three quarter Ayesha Perera.      

Skipper Thanuja Weerakkody was off target with both conversions but later made amends in the second half when she powered her way to touch down under the post following a superb offload from winger Ayesha Perera.

Full back Rukshani Ariyasena made no mistake with the conversion and Sri Lanka were well on course towards recording a convincing victory after having increased their lead to a commanding 17-nil mid way in the second half.

Sri Lanka of course went through some anxious moments during the last few minutes of play as they were penalized and were reduced to five players which resulted in Singapore scoring a consolation try.

Earlier Sri Lanka booked their place in the final by defeating the Philippines 17-5 in the semifinals collecting their points from one goal and two unconverted tries.

This was a tremendous improvement from the Sri Lankan women after having suffered two successive defeats at the hands of Hong Kong (5-25) and Kazakhstan (0-25) respectively.

Their only success on the opening day of the tournament was against Thailand where they triumphed by a close margin of 5-0 which pushed them into the Plate Championship.

Meanwhile in the other matches of the tournament Thailand beat Guam 17-0 to take the Bowl Championship, Philippines defeated Chinese Taipei to take seventh place.

In addition Hong Kong had the better of Kazakhstan 17-10 to secure the third place while Japan will take on China in the Cup Championship final today. (C.D.)