Sevens team leaves minus Nishon and Dinuk

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Sri Lanka Sevens rugby players left the island last night to France where they will participate in the World Sevens Games 2018 on 7 and 8 July in Paris.

Both Nishon Perera and Dinuk Amarasinghe will join the team one day later due to a delay in their visas. The Sri Lankan Sevens outfit is led by Sudarshana Muthuthanthri who led the outfit at the Commonwealth Games 2018 in the Gold Coast in April this year. The only surprise omission from the squad is Omalka Gunaratne, who did well in the Sevens’ second leg for the Red Shirts.

This event in France will be a good foundation for the Asian Games in Jakarta later in August 2018. Sri Lankan Sevens players will be hoping to bring home the first team event medal at this event. Later in September Sri Lanka will feature at the Asian Sevens 2018 in Hong Kong, South Korea and Sri Lanka in the three-leg event.

Team: Sudarshana Muthuthanthri (Captain), Nishon Perera, Naveen Henakankanamage,  Sudam Sooriyarachchi, Dhanushka Ranjan, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Gayan Weeraratne, Jason Dissanayake, Danushka Dyan, Kavindu Perera, Tharinda Ratwatte, Reza Raffaideen, Buddhima Piyaratane, Adeesha Weeratunge and Dinuk Amerasinghe. The Head Coach is Peter Woods (New Zealand). The trainer is Nick Groube (New Zealand).