Great hopes for women’s rugby after Plate win

Great hopes for women’s rugby after Plate win

Chris Dhambarage

The Sri Lanka women’s rugby team produced a stunning performance to win the Plate Championship at the HSBC Asian Rugby Sevens Series first leg worked off in Bangsean, Thailand last week.

Their success had a great amount of significance considering the fact that this was easily Sri Lanka’s finest moment in a major international sevens women’s tournament while surpassing their previous best performance of having won the Bowl title eight years ago in Singapore.

The Sri Lankan lasses not only had the distinction of overpowering some of the more fancied teams in the tournament but also had the ultimate satisfaction of finishing in the overall fifth place of the championship.

“I think the success should be attributed to some real hard work and total commitment because the girls put a lot of effort during their training sessions especially in the last two week’s before their departure” said a smiling Sri Lankan coach Chandrishan Perera.  

The former Sri Lanka men’s sevens national coach believed that early preparations and the proper training sessions have helped them to improve a lot in the recent past.    

“They had some intense training at home with a couple of practice matches against the men’s team as well and I think they were very strong both physically and mentally which helped them to overcome most of the challengers in Thailand.

“I must commend the leadership qualities of Thanuja Weerakkody who is a captain with a big heart and she was able to get the maximum from the rest of the players throughout the tournament.

“I think full credit should be given to the three armed forces Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force for having produced such brilliant players who have all learnt their basics of the game at their work places.”

The former CH and FC and Sri Lanka player also paid tribute to the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) for their untiring effort to promote women’s rugby in the country in a big way.  

“I think we have now built up a very good base and foundation in women’s rugby in the country and what we should be concentrating from here onwards is to expand the game and move ahead beyond our imaginations.

“The girls were forced to play some of the matches under very tough weather conditions in Thailand but I think they really stuck to their task and delivered the desired results when the team needed it most.

“I know things did not go according to plan on the opening day of the tournament because we went down against Hong Kong and Kazakhstan before recording a close 5 - nil victory over Thailand.

“But I think we should have won the match against Thailand by a bigger margin as the team missed at least three certain tries and they were unable to add the finishing touches.”

Chandrishan Perera also noted that despite going down against Hong Kong and Kazakhstan the team showed a lot of character and believed in themselves that they could leave a lasting impression.   

“The two defeats of course did not demoralise the team but instead they were inspired to perform much better on the second day as they won plenty of accolades for some outstanding tackling and defensive play.

“I think on the second day everything went according to our plans as we did not have any injuries and the girls were really fired up to win the Plate Championship following their setback on the previous day.

“I would have liked to see the girls scoring more tries in the Plate final against Singapore but anyway it was a very good all round performance that will provide us more confidence for the second leg in Mumbai,” added Chandrishan Perera.