‘More preparation would have produced better finish’: Marija

Wednesday, 4 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Japan won the All-ARFU women's Cup final v China in Borneo By Shamseer Jaleel Playing in their maiden tour for the year, the Sri Lanka sevens outfit fared respectably at the Boreno Rugby Sevens. In total six men’s and eight women’s teams participated in the three-day event which saw the Sri Lankan outfit, led by Fazil Marija, finishing fourth above China and Singapore. PNG, Hong Kong and Tonga ended ahead of Sri Lanka. The side was selected only two days before the tour and players were caught between the 15-a-side club event and the shorter version of the game.

This indicates that the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) was disorganised in its approach to the tournament as there was a period of three months to prepare for it. Had the management put on their thinking cap and sent a development squad of younger players who will be the future Sevens stars of the country it would have been more beneficial than sending the seniors with the Asian Sevens series kicking off later in September with two overseas tours. Sri Lanka ended up losing to Tonga 17-26 in the Cup semi-final. After being relegated to the Plate final, Sri Lanka suffered their second defeat at the hands of PNG, going down 7-33.Hong Kong outplayed Tonga in the final, winning 24-0, to take the first cross-continental tournament involving teams from Asia and Oceania. Tonga, who had defeated Hong Kong 21-19 in the group stages, had no answer to a clinical and disciplined performance from Hong Kong, who scored four unanswered tries to win the tournament. Hong Kong, which was the only Asian men’s team to beat the Pacific Islanders, knocked out Papua New Guinea 24-12 in the Cup semi-final while Tonga booked their Cup final berth with a 26-17 win over Sri Lanka. Hong Kong, Tonga and PNG will all figure in the 12-team qualifying tournament at the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens to decide which team wins core team status at the World Series next season. The Sri Lanka Sevens outfit, which had only two training sessions before departing, was caught between the 15-a-side and Sevens tournament. Currently, the inter-club league tournament is being worked off and having to adjust to the different forms of rugby left them feeling drained. Moreover, a coach for the national team was selected without proper approval from the Council. In the women’s competition, Japan continued their stranglehold over Asian women’s rugby when they beat China 22-7 in the Cup final. Marija, Sri Lanka’s Sevens skipper, speaking to the Daily FT yesterday said: “We played well to reach the semi-finals against Tonga. Due to two mistakes we lost the game but before going down to Tonga we crossed their line on three occasions. We had hardly any preparation for the tour. Within two days we needed to adjust from 15-a-side rugby to Sevens which was a tough task. Had we had more time for this tour we could have ended within the top two and given the Hong Kong outfit a hard time,” he stated.