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By Shamseer Jaleel reporting from Hong Kong
The Sri Lanka Sevens outfit under Dhanushka Ranjan crashed out of the World Series Qualifier in Hong Kong by losing all three of their group encounters at the Hong Kong Stadium over the weekend.
Spain stamped their class by securing qualification for the 2017/2018 World Series by beating Germany. Meanwhile, the 7th World Series leg in Hong Kong was grabbed by defending Hong Kong Sevens champions Fiji, who dispatched South Africa 22-0 in the cup final.
Sri Lanka, after being thumped on the opening day by Chile (38-0) and Hong Kong (31-5), were a yard faster against Namibia but still went down 26-14 in their last group encounter. This led to Sri Lanka falling out of the top 8 teams list in the 12-team event.
After Namibia’s early try, Sri Lanka hit back through Jason Dissanayake after Ranjan broke free and covered nearly 50 metres. Sooriyabandara added the extra points to have the teams entering halftime tied at seven points apiece. Namibia played a man down after one of their players was yellow carded during the last two minutes of the initial half.
After the turnaround Sooriyabandara touched down and added the extras in reply to a Namibian try which levelled the scores at 14-14. Sri Lanka earned plenty of opportunities but were unable to collect the high ball and produced several handling errors along with selfish play which cost them the game with the African nation scoring two back-to-back tries towards the end of the game to clinch it 26-14.
Speaking to Daily FT, Sri Lanka Head Coach Peter Woods said: “We need to have more time with the lads and put them together to take it to the next level. Guys are coming out of the Fifteens and playing Sevens within one month which is not good enough and too much of an asking within a short time period to adjust to Sevens rugby. With the Asian Sevens three-leg event coming up in September its good for Sri Lanka Rugby to put the team together in training sessions till then which will give us a good foundation heading towards it. This will give the boys three to four months to work as a team. All the other teams who came for this qualifier in Hong Kong were well prepared and had been together for a long time. Further, before the Asian Sevens in September it is good to get one more tournament in the shorter version of the game. Next year it’s going to be tougher with more tournaments lined up. It will be good if the Sevens team is not used for Fifteens competition, which will allow them to be more focused on the shorter version of the game.”
World Series
Cup quarterfinals
Australia beat Argentina 21-12, Fiji beat Canada 29-12, the US beat England 27-7 and South Africa beat New Zealand 21-19
Cup semi-finals
Fiji beat Australia 33-12 and South Africa beat the US 29-24
Cup finals
Fiji beat South Africa 22-0
Bronze medal final
Australia beat the USA 26-19
Shield finals
Japan beat Wales 36-31
Bowl final
Scotland beat Kenya 21-19
Plate final
New Zealand beat Argentina 10-7
World Series qualifier
Semifinals
Germany beat Chile 19-7, Spain beat PNG 21-12
Final
Spain beat Germany 12-7
