Poor start by under prepared Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka kicked off the World Series qualifier-Hong Kong in a pathetic way when they lost both their group encounters against Chile (38/0) and Asian giants, Hong Kong (31/5) at the Hong Kong Stadium in Causeway Bay yesterday. Sri Lanka will play Namibia today in their last group encounter at 7/58 a m Sri Lankan time.

Sri Lanka played Chile in their opening encounter with the South American outfit showing much stronger and heavier than the Lankans. After a close first two minutes Sri Lanka got a rare opportunity to attack, saw Fazil Marija handing off a few Chile defenders but there was no support play saw the opponents securing the loose ball and scoring their first try. Chile scored one more try in the initial half to take the breather at 12 to nothing. After the turn around things were no better for Sri Lanka as Chile attacked, played in Sri Lanka half scoring 4 more tries in tandem to take the game 38 to nothing. Only Dhanushka Dyan showed some pace in this game but once again lacked support from the rest.

In their second outing Sri Lanka faced the Asian challenge Hong Kong. Once again Sri Lanka started of well attacking in several phases and ball retention too was in very high standard. But in the 4th minute of the game changed when Hong Kong scored two back to back tries within a space of 1 minute. Leading 17 to nothing at the short breather Asian Sevens champions, Hong Kong registered a hard fought 31/5 win. Sri Lanka’s only try was scored by Anurudha Wilwara who covered nearly 75 meters in a solo effort.

This tournament which was a rare opportunity for Sri Lanka to compete at a similar level of development from outside the Asian region. One of the biggest setbacks in Sri Lanka’s development is the lack of international exposure. Although many expected Sri Lanka to come out with a win this did not materialize which shows our sevens rugby is far from good to beat the rest of the developing nations in the globe who are in similar world rankings.

 Speaking to Daily FT, Head Coach of Sri Lanka, Peter Woods said “We improved in our game against Hong Kong compared to the first one against Chile. Chile is coming from two back to back World Series and Hong Kong playing in Sevens rugby for the last 5 months. Our boys came after the club fifteens which was on for the last 5 months and only one sevens tournament in Borneo. The team should be together and prepare for the Asian Sevens. Next year too it’s going to be a tight sevens schedule with Asian Games, Asian Sevens and Commonwealth games. These boys will need to be kept together and more sevens exposure is a must for the lads. Woods ended as saying We need to see more sevens players coming up through local club sevens and Mercantile sevens before finalizing the team.

Meanwhile Japan stamped their class in Women’s qualification for 2017/2018 World Series qualification by a win over South Africa. 

 World Series qualifier (12 teams) 

PNG beat Uruguay 26/21, Spain beat Guyana 47/5, Uganda beat Tonga 29/0, Germany beat Jamaica 31/12, Chile beat Sri Lanka 38/0, Hong Kong beat Namibia 22/7, PNG beat Guyana 31/5, Spain beat Uruguay 36/0, Tonga beat Jamaica 14/5,  Germany beat Uganda 24/0, Chile beat Namibia 26/14, Hong Kong beat Sri Lanka 31/5

World Series (16 teams) 

Australia beat Samoa 22/19, England beat South Korea 52/0, Argentina beat Scotland 22/14, USA beat Russia 14/7 

Women’s semi finals

South Africa beat Belgium 17/7, Japan beat Italy 31/0

Women’s final

Japan beat South Africa 22/10