Jason and Dixon to miss out from Korean Rugby Sevens

By Shamseer Jaleel

Sri Lanka Rugby Sevens squad will miss out on the services of Kevin Dixon and Jason Dissanayake through injury after both performed remarkably well in the first leg in Hong Kong. The second leg of the Asian Sevens series will take place on 24 and 25 September at the Namdong Asiad Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.

Dinusha Fernando and Nison Perera failed to make it to the touring squad while Sudharshan Muthuthanthri is yet to recover from his injury. Sri Lanka will have more experience in their starting line-up compared to the first leg with the return of Kanchana Ramanayake, Richard Dharmapala and Srinarth Sooriyabandara all recovering from their injuries which they sustained at the Sri Lanka Super Sevens 2016 tournament which took place at the Race Course one month ago.

Sri Lanka will kick off the tournament with a game against Singapore (8:52 a.m. time) and then later on play Malaysia (11:56 a.m.) and China (3:12 p.m.) in their group encounters on day one.

Probable touring Squad (subject to Ministry of Sports approval): Danushka Ranajan (Capt.), Dhanushka Dyan, Srinarth Sooriyabandara, Richard Dharmapala, Kanchana Ramanayake (all from Kandy SC), Tharinda Ratwatte, Kavindu Perera, Omalka Gunaratne, Shashan Mohamed (all from CR&FC), Dulaj Perera, Hirantha Perera (Havies) and Saliya Handapangoda (Navy SC)

• Head Coach – Matt Turner, 
• Manager – Rohan Chinthaka

Men’s segment:

• Pool A – Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taipei
• Pool B – Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, China

Women’s segment:

• Pool C – Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Uzbekistan
• Pool D – China, Thailand, South Korea, Guam