Winning start for Sri Lanka at ARC

• Sri Lanka 24 points 
• Philippines 13 points

By Shamseer Jaleel 

The Sri Lanka rugby outfit under Roshan Weeraratne kicked off the Asian Rugby Championship Division I in Malaysia by beating the Philippines 24 points (2 tries, 1 conversion, 4 penalties) to 13 points (2 tries, 1 penalty) at the Ipoh Padang Stadium in Malaysia yesterday. 

Sri Lanka fullback Thilina Wijesinghe on the attack with support coming his way from Jason Dissanayake, Sayuru Anthony and Dhanushka Ranjan

Sri Lanka Number 8 Omalka Gunaratne breaks from the forwards against Philippines during the Asian Rugby Championship game against the Philippines

At the breather Sri Lanka led 11-0. 

Dhanushka Ranjan and Richard Dharmapala scored tries for Sri Lanka with Thilina Wijesinghe converting three penalties and putting over a try conversion as well. Ranjan also put over a penalty for Sri Lanka. 

For the losers, tries were scored by Justin Coveney and Ricky Kucia with Kevin Gora putting over a penalty. 

Sri Lanka replaced Lavanga Perera with Shashan Mohamed for this tour. 

Lavanga pulled out of the touring squad due to a family commitment. Tariq Salih was yellow carded during the game.  In the second game hosts Malaysia beat UAE 36-22. 

Sri Lanka, who received four points for this win, will meet UAE on 17 May at the same venue.