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By Shamseer Jaleel
Sri Lanka’s Under 20 ruggerites, led by Kevin Dixon, ended the first leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens on a high note when they beat South Korea 38-0 in the Cup finals at the Pasir Gudang Stadium in Johor Bahru, Malaysia yesterday.
The Sri Lankan outfit proved the benefit of experience and exposure at the Asian level as the majority of the 12 players who toured Malaysia remained unchanged from the line-up which played at last year’s event.
They used this experience to overcome hosts Malaysia in one of the semi-final encounters before going on to get the better of the Koreans in a one-sided finals.
On Day 1 Sri Lanka stamped their class on the tournament and almost pulled off a major upset when they gave Japan a scare before losing 14-19 in a thrilling encounter where the Asian Giants managed to score in the last minute of the game.
Sri Lanka dispatched hosts Malaysia in the Cup semi-finals 29-14 before demolishing the high-riding South Koreans 38-0 in the Cup finals. Japan ended the tournament third after they outclassed Malaysia 41-0 in the third place play-off. In the women’s segment, Thailand created a major upset when they edged out a much-fancied Hong Kong 7-5 in a thrilling Cup finals.
Sri Lanka made solid progressed from Day 1 onwards when they beat Philippines 22-5 and Thailand 31-5 before going down 14-19 to Japan. But Day 2 looked much brighter and saw them thrash UAE 45-5 in a group stage encounter. In total they played six games, losing out only to Japan.
Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) High Performance Coaching Director Inthi Marikar said: “We need to believe that we can beat top sides like Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. We need to end the game and never think of just defending instead of attacking. We need to pile up points to avoid any pressure on us. We progressed well with wins over Philippines, Thailand and the UAE in the group stages although we went down to Japan by giving away a last-minute try. We missed one scoring opportunity by dropping the ball on the try line. On Day 2 we looked a totally different outfit after learning from the mistakes we made on Day 1.”
Cup final
Sri Lanka beat South Korea 38-0
Cup semi-finals
Sri Lanka beat Malaysia 29-14
South Korea beat Japan 24-19
Third place
Japan beat Malaysia 41-0
Other matches
Hong Kong beat Thailand 19-12, Taipei beat UAE 21-17, Philippines beat Singapore 21-10, UAE beat Thailand 7-5 and Hong Kong beat Taipei 17-12
Women’s
Thailand beat Singapore 34-7, Hong Kong beat Malaysia 41-0 and Malaysia beat Singapore 15-5
Final
Thailand beat Hong Kong 7-5
Ranking at first leg (Men)
1) Sri Lanka
2) South Korea
3) Japan
4) Malaysia
5) Hong Kong
6) Taipei
7) UAE
8) Thailand
9) Philippines
10) Singapore
Ranking at first leg (Women)
1) Thailand
2) Hong Kong
3) Malaysia
4) Singapore
