SL women clinch plate; men finish disappointing sixth

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Sri Lanka women’s rugby outfit continued its good work from Hong Kong with another plate win (fifth place) in the second leg in South Korea at the Namdong Rugby Stadium yesterday. 

Meanwhile, the men’s outfit finished in a disappointing sixth position, losing 19-17 to the Philippines in the Plate final. Japan won the men’s and women’s segments, continuing their Asian Rugby dominance, being a yard faster than the rest of the league. The third and last leg will return to Sri Lanka in mid-October.

Sri Lanka led 12-7 at halftime but went down fighting in the end, losing out on fifth place to the Philippine outfit after going down 17-19. Tries were scored by Sooriyabandara, Dinuk and Sooriyarachchi. Sri Lanka beat Malaysia 17-12 in the semi-final of the Plate. Earlier in the group encounter they went down 22-14 to hosts South Korea before being knocked out of the Cup segment. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka women’s outfit won the plate championship when they outclassed Thailand 22-5. Dulani Pallekondage and Thanuja Weerakody scored for Sri Lanka with the Thai girls replying with one try to close the gap to 10-5 at halftime. Thanuja scored another two tries to complete her hat-trick of tries in the game where Sri Lanka ran away easy 22-5 winners.

The previous game saw a Dulani hat-trick floor the Singaporean outfit 15-10 in the plate semi-final. Japan too was strong as they beat the Sri Lankan women’s outfit 41-0 in their last group encounter.

Men’s Group

Japan beat China 26-14, the Philippines beat Malaysia 24-5, Hong Kong beat Taipei 73-0 and South Korea beat Sri Lanka 22-14

• Plate semi-finals

Sri Lanka beat Malaysia 17-12, the Philippines beat Taipei 17-7

• Cup semi-final

Japan beat South Korea 33-24, Hong Kong beat China 47-0

• 7th place

Taipei beat Malaysia 292-4

• 5th place Plate final

The Philippines beat Sri Lanka 19-17

• 3rd place

China beat South Korea 31-12

• Cup final

Japan beat Hong Kong 28-19

 Women’s

China beat Thailand 19-0, Kazakhstan beat Singapore 48-0, Japan beat Sri Lanka 41-0 and Hong Kong beat South Korea 15-10

• Plate semi-finals

Thailand beat South Korea 20-12, Sri Lanka beat Singapore 15-10

• Cup semifinals

Japan beat China 10-5, Kazakhstan beat Hong Kong 26-14

Singapore beat South Korea 19-7

• Plate final

Sri Lanka beat Thailand 22-5

• 3rd place

China beat Hong Kong 31-10

• Cup final

Japan beat Kazakhstan 17-12