Fazil to lead in his final Sevens series

By Shamseer Jaleel

Former Kingswood, Kandy SC, Sri Lanka Sevens and Fifteens skipper and current Kandy SC rugby captain Fazil Marija will lead the Sri Lankan Sevens outfit for the very last time at the Asian Sevens Series in Colombo this weekend.

Sri Lanka named the 12-man squad last evening with the majority of players coming into the squad from the champion Kandy SC (7) and Havelocks SC (4).

Fazil, playing for the country since the age of 18 years while playing for the Randles Hill school, was selected to play for Sri Lanka when the Hong Kong team visited Sri Lanka. For the last decade he was an automatic choice, unsettling the majority of the opposing rugby teams in Asia. He is also one of the very few players who could walk into any Asian team in his position of fly half.

He led the national Sevens team to number three at the 2014 Asian Sevens Series while winning many plates in the same segment in consecutive years.

“Now it’s time for the juniors to take over. I have played and led the side for over five years and there are some very good leaders; a few I could think of are Sooriyabandara and Muthuthanthri, who are quality leaders. I will continue to play under any leader until I am fit,” Fazil said.

“The cup Final show, plus an overall ranking of three, will be a good end to my leadership at the last leg this weekend,” he added.

Sri Lanka placed fourth along with Hong Kong, with Japan, South Korea and China standing ahead in the Sevens series. Men’s outfit will open their group encounter with a game against Philippines tomorrow followed by Malaysia. Sri Lanka Women’s outfit will kickoff proceedings tomorrow with a game against Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan men’s team pulled out at the last minute leaving 11 men’s teams in the tournament.

Sri Lanka Squad for third leg

Fazil Marija (Captain), Richard Dharmapala, Nigel Ratwatte, Gayan Weeraratne, Shehan Pathirana, Srinarth Sooriyabandara, Anurudha Wilwara (all from Kandy SC) Dhanushka Ranjan, Sudharshan Muthuthanthri, Sandun Herath, Dulaj Perera (all from Havelocks SC) and Kanchana Ramanayake (CR&FC)

Head Coach – Mathew Turner (England)

Men’s Groups

Group A – Japan, UAE, Taipei

Group B – Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines

Group C – Hong Kong, China, Kazakhstan

Women’s Groups

Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Uzbekistan

China, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Singapore