Lanka power their way to quarters

HSBC Asian Rugby Sevens Series

Lanka power their way to quarters

Sri Lanka powered their way into the Cup Championship quarterfinals while registering two convincing victories on the opening day of the HSBC Asian Rugby Sevens Series penultimate leg which commenced at the Gymkhana Club in Mumbai, India yesterday.

The Tuskers playing with a lot of confidence following their excellent performances in the opening two legs of the series launched their campaign with a massive 55 points 7 victory over the United Arab Emirates team in a group ‘C’ encounter.

Sri Lanka maintained the same form in their second outing of the day as they cruised to a resounding 28 points to 5 points win over Thailand after having built up a close 7-5 lead at half time.

Sri Lanka’s success over the United Arab Emirates was one of the biggest victories of the day as they turned the game in their favour even before half time with a ruthless performance where they took a commanding 38-0 lead at the breather.

The winners planted as many as nine tries during a fine exhibition of sevens rugby while converting seven of them and went on to add two more tries and a goal to their tally in the second half and complete a fantastic triumph in their opening fixture.

The most significant feature in this performance was the fact that all seven players had the opportunity of crossing the opponent’s goal line at least once with skipper Fazil Marija, Chula Susantha, Jason Dissanayake, Sandun Herathm, and Srinath Sooriyabandara scoring two tries each while Mithun Hapugoda and Shehan Pathirana scored a try each for the winners.

In the second match of course against Thailand the Sri Lankan could not make a great start and managed to score only a solitary try in the first half through Srinath Sooriyabandara.

However Sri Lanka cut loose in the second quarter and ran riot by running down three more tries through Sajith Saranga and Dinusha Chaturanga with skipper Fazil Marija adding the extra points.

Sri Lanka’s opponent’s in today’s Cup Championship quarterfinal will be the Philippines a team which will most probably be studded with a Fijian, Australian and an American player.   

      

Meanwhile the reigning HSBC Asian Sevens champions Japan enjoyed a highly successful opening day as they defeated Philippines 39-7 and Chinese Taipei 28-5 respectively.

In addition South Korea had the better of Kazakhstan (35-0) and Singapore (41-5) while Hong Kong defeated Malaysia (36-12) Philippines beat Chinese Taipei (31-7) and Thailand beat UAE (31-14) in the other group matches of the day.    

The Results:

Philippines beat Chinese Taipei 31-7, Singapore beat Kazakhstan 14-0, Thailand beat UAR 31-14, Malaysia bat Chine 14-7, Japan beat Chinese Taipei 28-5, South Korea beat Singapore 41-5, Sri Lanka beat UAE 55-7, Hong Kong beat Chine 40-5, Japan beat Philippines 39-7, South Korea beat Kazakhstan 35-0, Sri Lanka beat Thailand 28-5, Hong Kong beat Malaysia 36-12.