Asian Games Sevens Rugby OCA beat Afghanistan and Philippines

Tharinda Ratwatte tackles a Taipei player

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Sri Lanka rugby outfit playing under the Olympic Committee of Asia (OCA) won both their matches against Afghanistan and the Philippines at the Asian Games in China yesterday. 

OCA registered their first win in the Asian Games when they beat Afghanistan 36/10. OCA tries were scored by Raveen de Silva (2), Gemunu Chethiya (2), Adessha Weeratunge and Adam Gauder. Tharinda Ratwatte converted three of them. 

In their last encounter, OCA got the better of the Philippines 21/12 with some cohesive rugby scoring three converted tries. Akash Maduranga, Heshan Jensen and Adam Gauder scored with Tharinda Ratwatte converting all three.  

OCA will play Nepal and Thailand today, which will determine the final position of the team. South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and China moved forward to the Cup semi-finals stages. The top three will receive medals.

OCA Head Coach, Dushantha Lewke speaking to Daily FT said: “I am really happy with how the young boys have stepped up and showed immediate improvement in their adoption to the program. Really happy how they played against the Philippines as we lost to them in the last Sevens circuit with most players being available. Beating them is a good step for us in the right direction. The team is playing better in each game. Most definitely my first target was to get the players fit to last 14 minutes as they have not played any rugby for the last five months.”