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Sri Lanka tour of Malaysia
By Shamseer Jaleel
Malaysia 31 points
Sri Lanka 26 points
A motivated Sri Lankan unit was edged out by Malaysia 31/26 in a close encounter at the Bukit Jalil Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday in a friendly encounter between the two countries before they begin their Asia Rugby Championship 2019 journey.
At the short breather, winners led 24/6.
Sri Lanka got off to a late second half start after the home team dominated proceedings with a lead of 24/6 at the short breather. Continuity of conceding of penalties was a constant occurring by the Sri Lankan outfit which cost them the not only the initial half but also the game. This allowed an easy path for the home team to attack without much difficulty as the visitors defended most part of the initial half. Two Samuel Maduwantha penalties were the only scoring for Sri Lanka in the initial half.
Mohamed Fairooz put over a 35 meter penalty to open scoring for the home side. Wye, their dashing winger, scored the first Malaysian try. Etonia Vaqa and Mohamed Syahir scored two quick tries where the Lankans were caught napping without any answer or reply. All the try conversions were successful by Aaquil Ameerul who had a field day with the golden boots.
After the turnaround Thilina Wijesinghe was on target with two penalties to reduce the gap to 12/24. But the happiness was short lived for the visitors as Etonia Vaqa scored his second sensational try with some beautiful techniques. Sri Lanka skipper, Omalka Gunaratne scored their first try late in the 74th minute. Omalka scored his second try but it was too small and too late for Sri Lankans as the time ran out too fast for them.
Sri Lanka will need to tighten their defence and attack earlier in the game and reduce their conceding of penalty as a habits. This will be a good tester for the side led by Omalka Gunaratne when they return for the training for the Asia Rugby Championship Division 1 tour to Taipei.
With the originally appointed skipper Roshan Weeraratne coming back in to the selections they will be able to send a better unit end of the month to Taipei in order to get promoted. Sri Lanka will play Philippines in the opening encounter.
Fazil Marija, speaking to Daily FT from Malaysia, said: “Our players played their hearts out, I am impressed with them. We didn’t have the luck plus the finishing touches. We should have grabbed it in the end had we started early. We will overcome the errors, with training and teambuilding sessions will perform better in Taipei end of this month.”
Speaking to Daily FT, Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) Deputy President Rizly Illyas said: “The initiative for the Malaysian tour was done by our Past President Asanga Seneviratne. He phoned me and stated to get in touch with Malaysian Rugby President Sharul Zaman Bin. When I spoke he was keen to come to Sri Lanka before their Asia Top Three which will kick off later this month alongside South Korea and Hong Kong in home and away matches. We discussed the matter with President Lasitha Gunaratne and our Exco where majority decided that we should go ahead with the tour to Malaysia.”
Rizly ended as saying: “A very big thank you for Asanga Seneviratne and Malaysian Rugby President Sharul Zaman Bin for making this tour possible. Last but not the least without our sponsors Dialog this would not have possible to happen. We thank for their continued support for SLR. We won one and narrowly lost the other playing minus 11 of our top players. Fazil and Viraj done a great job under Matt within a short time with the young blood on tour.”
Rizly thanked the Vice President Nazeem Mohamed for putting the teamwork ahead of all and moving towards a professional environment and looking at the local resources rather than spending heavily on overseas coaching staff.
“This young team showed they are capable of being in the Top Three sooner than later. He ended praising the top job done by Chief de Mission Admiral Hettiarachchi who brought about unity and discipline and character in the touring outfit, his experience was an asset to SLR. In future too we will have zero tolerance on players discipline and want to put the country ahead.”
