A heartbreaking loss in the final of the Asia Under 20 Sevens saw the Junior Tuskers ending their campaign as runner-up giving up the silverware that they won last year in Hong Kong.
Scrappy win sees Tuskers end unbeaten
Sri Lanka managed to secure a scrappy win in their final game on day one against Malaysia 26-05. However the Tuskers will know improvement…
The unbeaten Lankan side going into the finals could not get their act straight for the entire 14-minutes of play and struggled in every aspect. Going up against Hong Kong seemed to be a daunting task but unfortunately failed to even provide an on-par performance not having the privilege of scoring even a single try.
Read about Sri Lanka’s win against Chinese Taipei
Full Time Score: Sri Lanka 0 – Hong Kong 36 (6T 3C)
The Tuskers were unsettled from the kick off whistle and failed to deliver when it mattered the most. Capitalizing on Sri Lanka’s mistakes, Hong Kong were three tries up in a lapse of five minutes.
With Sri Lanka’s Dinuk Amerasinghe sent to the sin-bin in the final few minutes of play, Hong Kong finished the first half leading 26-0.
The second half was no different. The Lankans tried, opted to kick and did every possible ploy to stop the inevitable but failed. Two tries came in favour of the hosts courtesy of Paul Altier and Duffy Oliver as Hong Kong got their hands on the title for the year 2017.
With hosts clinching the title for the year 2017, Sri Lanka will be forced to be satisfied with the second place finish; the best they could do this time around.
Sri Lanka Rugby should be disappointed to not to bring home the cup title this time but should be contempt in the manner the youngsters performed and excelled over the two days.
Naveen Henakankanamage – Second highest try scorer
Sri Lanka skipper Naveen Henakankanamage ended as the second highest try scorer in the Asia Under 20 Series scoring a total of 9 tries. He was undoubtedly the team’s live wire throughout the tournament and will be second only to Hong Kong’s Kit Fong Fung who has 11 under his name.
