Tour of Malaysia: Sri Lanka face stiff challenge

By Shamseer Jaleel

Sri Lanka rugby outfit under Omalka Gunaratne will face a real test when they lock horns with a Malaysian Barbarians XV in Kuala Lumpur today.

Sri Lanka’s preparation for the tour was disrupted with multiple bomb blasts in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa. This prompted the authorities to cancel the planned teambuilding session which was scheduled to take place at the Navy Camp in Welisara. This situation made the Colombo unit and Kandy unit do their training sessions separately in Kandy and Colombo before moving in to Colombo three days before the tour.  

With plenty of debut makers in the 32-member squad led by Omalka Gunaratne who himself makes his first XV’s game as skipper will be under pressure to keep their places intact for the Taipei tour. In fact, Omalka Gunaratne will becomes the youngest to lead a Sri Lanka XV’s at the age of 23 years. He led Isipathana to triple champions in the year 2015. 

Roshan Weeraratne who was expected to lead the outfit pulled out two days before the tour, citing personal reasons and will be back with the Taipei tour training camp after the team returns to the island on 5 May. Former Vidyartha and CR&FC winger Kavindu Perera will be the deputy to Omalka on tour.

Sri Lanka will play the Malaysian national outfit in their last tour match on 4 May before returning back to the island and getting in to serious training for the Taipei tour later this month which is played for the Asia Rugby Championship Division 1. Winners of ARC Division 1 in Taipei will get promotion to Top Three in 2020 while the fourth placed team will be demoted to Division 2 next year.

Touring Squad

Yakoob Ali, Tharindu Chathuranga, Thilina Wijesinghe (all from Kandy SC), Kasun De Silva, Gihan Perera, Buddhima Piyaratne, Mohamed Absal (all from Navy SC), Prasath Madusanka, Sajith Saranga, Niwanka Prasad, Sathya Ranathunge, Samuel Maduwantha, Anuradha Herath, Jason Melder (all from CH&FC), Ajmeer Fajudeen, Umesh Madushan, Lasindu Ishan, Mithun Hapugoda, Sandesh Jayawickrema, Dinuk Amarasinghe, Theekshana Dassanayake (all from Havelock SC), Charles Praveen, Thilina Bandara, Nuwan Perera (all from Air Force), Omalka Gunarathane (Captain), Rahul de Silva, Kavindu Perera, Reza Rafaideen, Kevin Dixon (all from CR&FC), Prabath Kumara, Sudaraka Dikkumbura, Ashan Bandara (all from Army SC). Head Coach Matt Lee (New Zealand) and Assistant Coaching Staff Fazil Marija (Three quarters) and Viraj Prasanna (Forwards).