Tuskers departed the island last night ahead of this weekend’s Asia 7s series first leg in Qingdao, China. The second leg will be played in Bangkok, Thailand on 26th & 27th September and the final leg will be in Colombo on 10th & 11th October.
Tuskers finished 3rd in Asia in 2013 and 4th in 2014 and once again will be eying the 3rd spot this year. Sudarshana Muthuthantri is leading the Tuskers for the first time in the absence of injured Fazil Marija. However, Tuskers will take on Kazakhstan at 12.22 pm SL time and Singapore at 3.18 pm SL time. Sri Lanka have won convincingly with both these teams in the past. However, the second day is expected to be the business end for the Tuskers.
If Sri Lanka top the group B they will take on the second place in group D that will be either Korea, Thailand or Malaysia in the cup quarter finals on Sunday. Hong Kong still looks like a team that can defend their title this year. Asian giants Japan will miss most of their stars due to the XV’s format at the rugby world cup 2015 in England.
The Tuskers had 3 weeks training soon after the inter club 7’s and is looking comfortable a formidable outfit ahead of this tour. “We are hoping to step up one place ahead and hoping to finish second” Captain Sudarshana Muthuthanthri said to ThePapare.com. He also stated that the team learned a lot through the coach Mat Turner who is an England international 7s player.
