The Sri Lanka rugby 7s team will have a gigantic task on their hands at the Olympic Qualifiers in Monaco, which will kickoff this Saturday. The Tuskers have been drawn in Pool B alongside Canada, Germany and Uruguay.
One win in the group stage will help Sri Lanka claim the 27th spot in the world rankings, according to coach Mathew Turner, who is a former England sevens player himself. However, only the winner of the entire competition will qualify for the Rio Olympics in August and they will be joining Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Fiji, Japan, France, USA, Argentina, Kenya and hosts Brazil.
Tuskers opt for experience at Monaco Sevens
Sri Lanka will face Germany in their 1st game. The Germans are known for their physicality in the XV’s format and are not renowned for being an exciting team around the globe in the shorter version of the game.
In 2012 the German team competed in the top-level European sevens competition, the Grand Prix series, where they finished eleventh out of twelve teams and avoided relegation. The team also unsuccessfully took part in the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens qualifying tournament in Moscow in July 2012.
Sri Lanka will next take on Canada, one of the favourites to win this tournament alongside Samoa. Canada is a core team which participates in the IRB World Sevens Series. They also finished 13th in the concluded HSBC World Series.
Nathan Hirayama was their highest try & points scorer in the last series and John Moonlight is the warrior who gave lots of trouble to top tier nations in the concluded series.
The last game on day one for the Tuskers is against Uruguay and this is the team which Sri Lanka will be looking to overthrow. At the South American Sevens, Uruguay has won in 2012 while finishing as runners-up 6 times. The team finished fourth at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games.
They participated in the 2014 Hong Kong Sevens in the World Series Qualifier where they qualified for the quarterfinals, finishing second in their pool, but lost out to Russia 21-14. At the 2015 Hong Kong Sevens, they claimed wins over Brazil and Mexico and losses to Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. The team did not qualify for the 2016 Hong Kong Sevens.
Photo Album – Tuskers last training before Olympic Qualifiers in Monaco
The Tuskers captain Sudarshana Muthuthantri believes that they can create an upset against the giants with all the experience they have in the team. Former captain Fazil Marija is also back in the squad; this will give a huge boost to those around him. Gayan Weerarathne, Shehan Pathirana, Anurudda Wilwara, Dulaj Perera, Lavanga Perera and Nigel Ratwatte, who were regulars in the squad, will miss out due to injuries. Meanwhile CR&FC duo Kavindu Perera and Rochana Hettiarachchi will be on their maiden tour alongside Kandy player Dhanush Dayan.
