Lanka steadily climbs Asian rugby sevens ladder

Lanka steadily climbs Asian rugby sevens ladder

Chris Dhambarage

Sri Lanka came out with an improved performance to clinch the third place at the HSBC Asian Rugby Sevens Series second leg which was worked off in Bangsean, Thailand last week.

After having won the fourth place at the previous event held in Malaysia two week’s ago the Tuskers came back strongly to beat a host of top contenders and to complete a memorable tournament.

This was also one of the finest moments in Sri Lankan rugby as they rallied around magnificently to beat the Asian heavyweights South Korea by a most comprehensive margin of 29 points to 7 in the play off final.

Never before had Sri Lanka won so convincingly against South Korea as the island nation stole the limelight for some breathtaking fast open rugby while retaining their prestigious third place position in the Asian Rugby Circuit.        

With two more events to be worked off in Mumbai (October 12/13) and Singapore (November 9/10) Sri Lanka have put themselves on course towards making an appearance at the high profile Hong Kong IRB World Series Sevens Tournament in 2014 where the top four Asian teams will automatically qualify for this event.    

“I am extremely proud of this team and the boys have really worked hard to reach this position while performing under tremendous pressure,” said a determined Sri Lankan coach Niloufer Ibrahim.

The former Kingswood College and Kandy Sports Club player believed that the team was well prepared this time unlike in the previous event and they were able to reach the number three position through some excellent team work.

“I think we worked together as a team and the boys were determined to put up an improved performance because during the last event in Malaysia we made a couple of mistakes that pushed us into the fourth place.”

The Sri Lankan coach also noted that a couple of positional changes in the side really helped the team to beat the powerful South Korean team in the vital third place play off.       

“We experimented while playing two genuine back division players in the front row and I think it worked well for the team because Chula Susantha and Dinesh Chaturanga were able to cause a lot of panic in the opposition defence and also scored the opening two tries for the team in the first half.”

Niloufer Ibrahim also commended the efforts of the three quarters who were always a treat to watch with their brilliant all round display which helped them to finish on top of pool ‘B’ with two smashing victories over Kazakhstan (26-5) and Chinese Taipei (15-12).

“I think winger Srinath Sooriyabandara had an outstanding tournament scoring tries in every outing and his performance against Kazakhstan was brilliant where he scored a rare hat trick of tries.

“I am also really impressed with young Jason Dissanayake of Vidyartha College Kandy who in his debut looked a matured player and his contribution especially in the match against Chinese Taipei was absolutely marvelous.”        

Niloufer Ibrahim of course regretted for not making it to the Cup Championship final following a heavy 5-52 defeat at the hands of the ultimate champions Japan.

“We were determined to win this match and enter the Cup final although we had to rest skipper Fazil Marija because of an injury but I think Japan were fielding three Tongan players and they simply blew us apart by running down eight tries.  

“However we were not demoralised at all despite this huge defeat and the boys showed a lot of character and were able to quickly regroup and bounce back with a vastly improved performance in the next outing.”

The Sri Lankan coach believed that this team has the talent and the potential to reach the Cup Championship final in the third leg of the HSBC Sevens Series which will be worked off on October 12 and 13 in at the Gymkhana Club in Mumbai, India.

“I think we are now heading in the right direction and the squad that we are having now is highly competitive and with a couple of changes we should be targeting the top two positions during the next two events” added Niloufer Ibrahim.