Sri Lankan Women’s rugby outfit to miss out on Chennai sevens

Head Coach Linda Itunu will need to wait for Asia Rugby;s decision on Sri Lanka Women’s participation at the Asian Sevens

By Shamseer Jaleel 

The Sri Lanka Women’s rugby outfit which was supposed to leave to India last morning was informed by the Indian Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that due to security reasons they would not able to accomadate the Sri Lankan outfit. 

The Asian Rugby Development Sevens Series will take place in Chennai on 20 and 21 February. The second leg will take place in Dubai on 26 and 27 of this month but the Duabi leg will feature only the Men’s outfits. 

The Sri Lanka team was under training for the last two months having got down one leading Coach from New Zealand (Linda Itunu) for this tour. 

The IRFU had only informed the Sri Lankan Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) three days back that they could not take Sri Lanka in due to security reasons. 

Women’s Rugby Chairman S.W. Chang told the Daily FT: “We are disappointed about this decision which came at the very last moment. We have made all arrangements and were to leave yesterday to India. SLRFU will need to take up the matter with Asian Rugby and IRFU and sort out our place for the Asian Women’s series in 2016 as it’s unfair on Sri Lankan Women who could have pulled this off and secured their place. Further the amount spent on the preparation of this tour is likely to be reimbursed by Asian Rugby as Sri Lanka is not at fault.”