Sri Lanka slide down to number 3 in Junior Asian Rugby Championship 2016

By Shamseer Jaleel

Sri Lanka was placed third in the tournament sliding down from their number two position at the recently concluded Asian Rugby Championship Under-19 tournament in Malaysia. 

Hong Kong once again stamped their class by securing the fourth tournament win in the region. Taipei was placed number two and Malaysia, who were placed last, will drop down to Division I in 2017 while the South Koreans who won the Division I this year will be promoted to the top division next year. 

Hong Kong will join Asian rivals Japan, who drop down to the second-tier Under-20 competition following their bottom-placed finish at the Under-20 Championship, with hosts Uruguay, South American qualifiers Chile, Oceania champions Fiji and African champions Namibia also assured of their place at the tournament in Montevideo. The remaining places in the eight-team tournament will be filled by the European champions and the winner of a play-off between Canada and USA which will take place in early January. Speaking to Daily FT, Sri Lanka Head Coach Nilfer Ibrahim said: “We had a bad outing… Seven of our players were hospitalised including Terence Henry. We suspect food poisoning. In the last outing even we did not have replacements, a few of the lads played with high fever. All the other three sides have improved tremendously and narrowed the gap. We need to form a pool as soon as the school season is over in 2017 if we are to qualify for the Junior World Tournament in 2018.”