Spirited young blood all out to perform well: SLR President Rizly Ilyas

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Sri Lanka Men’s and Women’s Sevens outfits will leave the country this evening in order to participate at the Asia Rugby Sevens 2021, which will take place on 19 and 20 November at the Sports City Rugby Ground in Dubai. This event will be a yard stick to select the two teams each (men’s and women’s) for the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa.

The Sri Lanka Men’s outfit will be led by Sri Lanka Navy SC’s Adeesha Weeratunge while the Women’s outfit will be led by Army SC’s experienced Dulani Pallikkondage. The Men’s outfit will have the experienced Nilfer Ibrahim as their Head Coach, while the Women’s team will be coached by another veteran in the field in Saliya Kumara. Former England Sevens sensation Ben Gollings will be the Rugby Director for the UAE tour.

Speaking to Daily FT, Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) President Rizly Ilyas said: “As we move into the last couple of days looking forward for the international restart of rugby, the Sri Lankan Rugby Sevens squads, both men and women, move forward with a positive mindset despite being under prepared due to the COVID 19 pandemic. There was only one tournament in Sri Lanka for the last 20 months, but the team has good values, not only targeting to win but to also take part in the tournament with values of Olympism, which is excellence, respect and friendship.

“SLR is also thankful to our main sponsors, for the men’s team Moose Clothing and for the women’s team EFL Co-Sponsors WebXpay, propping up for the sponsorship during difficult times. Their generous donations go such a long way in helping to empower young people to succeed through the values of rugby and to build a positive and supportive community.

“The tournament’s big names such as Japan, Hong Kong, and China have already set their foot in Dubai and are training and adjusting to conditions in the UAE. Our team lacked this and moving forward this would be taken very seriously going into other major tournaments. If we are not prepared for the high-performance (HP) training unit, we can kiss goodbye and chance of bringing back glory or medals. It is not rocket science that if the proper mechanism is understood, putting it into work right is a process of having a balanced management in place. SLR lacked that support, although we had planned and prepared from December 2020.”

“SLR contracting Rugby Director and Consultant Ben Gollings was down to the fact that he possesses the love and knowledge of the game of Sevens, and still holds the record of being the highest try scorer in the shorter version of the game. As SLR, we would have been much happier if we could have started the HP program six months before so that we would have had the best of players in the squad and well prepared to take on the game. Nevertheless, this Asian Rugby Sevens is a tester and a teaser for all the countries.”

Rizly ended by thanking Ministry of Sports and Sports Medicine Unit, the Ministry of Health, Ramada Hotel, Mandarina Hotel, Dr. Sankalpana, SLR Council and SLR Administration under the leadership of Executive Director Hamza Hidayathullah. 

“Our sincere gratitude to CR & FC President Ted Muttiah for making the grounds available for the national women’s team. And at all times when SLR wanted a ground booking for training, Havelock SC President Thusitha, Police SC, Air Force and Royal College grounds were very helpful in assisting and providing the necessary facility for training under very trying times of the bio bubble concept.”

Speaking to Daily FT, Sri Lanka Women’s Head Coach Saliya Kumara said: “The girls did not play in the Warrior Trophy but the initial 50 was given one month back. Many have not played the game at school level. After reducing the pool to 20 we found ample talent with experienced players at Asian level, plus getting the correct combination was not so tough. We have some tough group encounters before we move to day two. I would like to thank SLR and the Ministry of Sports for all the support during the last month in preparation for the tour.”