Sri Lanka win battle but lose war

Review of second leg of Asian Sevens 2017 

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Sri Lankan women’s and men’s Sevens outfits clinched the plate trophy (fifth position out of eight teams) at the Asian Sevens 2017 second leg, which was worked off at the Namdong Asiad Stadium in South Korea last weekend. 

Sri Lanka’s women’s outfit, with little exposure in the local and Asian arena, played well in displaying some diehard qualities and a resilient attitude when in action. All credit should be given to the team which is coached by former Sri Lanka Sevens player and Police, Kandy SC scrum half Sudath Sampath, who was well supported by High Performance Director Inthi Marikar, who has rendered yeoman service to them to come to this level in the Asian region. Thanuja Weerakkody, Anusha Attanayake and Dulani Pallikondage were outstanding both in attack and defence.

Sri Lanka were beaten by the physical Kazakhstan outfit 27-7 in the cup quarterfinal encounter and then moved to the plate semifinal. They had a close call against an unpredictable Singapore outfit, edging them out 19-15. Coming into the plate final in the women’s segment, Sri Lanka beat Thailand 24-12.

In the men’s event, Sri Lanka as expected were beaten by Japan, who sent their best outfit in order to qualify for the 2018 Sevens Rugby World Cup and Hong Kong Sevens for second tier teams in 2018 April. This led Sri Lanka to battle it out against China and Taipei in the group outings. As expected the Chinese outfit gave a torrid time to the Sri Lankans, who sported a combination of youth and experience with the return of Dhanushka Ranjan and Chanaka Chandimal. But the Chinese, who got the better of Sri Lanka in Hong Kong, settled for a 26-26 draw but they won the Taipei game easily. Sri Lanka just managed to beat Taipei 26-24 which put them third in the group behind China and Japan.

This led to an acid test quarterfinal encounter against Hong Kong, who have gotten the better of the Sri Lankans in the Sevens game during the last couple of years. Sri Lanka finished on the debit side of the ledger when they lost the game 31-12. Sri Lanka, who were relegated to the plate semifinals, played well to beat the Philippines outfit and then beat the Malaysians in a one-sided affair to claim fifth position, which was a repeat of the first leg in Hong Kong three weeks ago.

Now the men’s segment of the tournament has opened out with the South Koreans winning the second leg. It’s between Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea to battle it out for the 2018 Hong Kong Sevens and Sevens Rugby World Cup 2018 qualification process. The best Sri Lanka can do is a semifinal finish and securing fourth position overall.

Speaking to Daily FT, Sri Lanka women’s coach Sudath Sampath said: “Our girls displayed good guts and never gave up, playing with a positive attitude. A few mistakes and a knock-on let us down against Hong Kong. We beat Thailand, Singapore and South Korea, which gives a lot of hope for the Colombo leg in two weeks’ time. We want to finish in the top three and we will work towards this during the last leg in Colombo in two weeks’ time. We will start training today.”