Reza and Rehan make it into Colombo leg

Asian Sevens 2017 third leg in Colombo

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Sri Lanka Sevens rugby squad for the third leg of the Asian Sevens 2017 in Colombo this weekend was named last evening with two new faces coming into the squad. 

Rehan Silva and Reza Rafaideen were both included in the final 12. 

Sri Lanka, who finished fifth in both the Korean and Hong Kong leg, will be expecting a minimum of a semi-final finish. To achieve this they will have to beat both China and Taipei to avoid a tough quarterfinal encounter. Sri Lanka went down to an improved Chinese outfit in Hong Kong and later on managed to level the scores with the same opponents during the Korean leg.

The third leg at racecourse grounds on 14 and 15 October will leave Sri Lanka out of the race for next year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens and Hong Kong Sevens as the top two teams will only be booking their berth. The three frontrunners are in the hunt for the two vacant slots. They are Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. 

Probable squad: Sudharshana Muthuthanthri (Capt.), Dhanushka Dyan, Sudam Sooriyarachchi, Jason Dissanayake, Omalka Gunaratne, Tharinda Ratwatte, Kavindu Perera, Dhanuska Ranjan, Rehan Silva, Richard Dharmapala, Srinarth Sooriyabandara and Reza Rafaideen 

Head Coach - Peter Woods

High Performance Director - Inthi Marikar

Men’s

Pool A - Sri Lanka, South Korea, China and Taipei

Pool B - Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines and Malaysia