Sri Lanka Tuskers after a brilliant performance in the concluded Asia seven’s series final leg in Colombo, is now in Hong Kong ahead of the Asia seven’s Olympic qualifier.
This weekend will test Sudarshana Muthuthantri who has taken the mandate from the veteran Fazil Marija as captain. He has been a great leader for the Havelock’s sports club last season and also one of the versatile players to play in both XV’s and 7’s format of the game.
The Sri Lanka Rugby team have drawn in pool B along with Iran, Malaysia, Philippines and the hosts Hong Kong. Pool A comprises of Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Chinese Taipei. The top two finishers of both groups will play A1 v B2 and B1 v A2 in the cup semifinal and the winner of the final will secure a place for the Rio Olympics next year. The runners up will have another opportunity to play in a repecharge system next year between the runners up of the other continents and the winners in that get the chance of a life time to enter in to the first edition of the rugby 7s at the Olympics.
Sri Lanka v Hong Kong which is the last game of day-one will decide who will top group B as the Tuskers have beaten Malaysia and Philippines comfortably in the recent games. On the other hand Japan and Korea will look to top their pool but China has been the quiet assassin who ended up beating Sri Lanka and Hong Kong in the first leg of Asia 7’s series a few weeks ago in China.
Tuskers’ manager Rohan Chinthaka speaking to ThePapare.com said “ boys had a good time in Singapore, we are confident and we believe that we can beat Hong Kong and top the group, so that will possibly avoid playing Japan in the semifinal who are looking favourites”
Asian giants Japan will be even stronger with their world cup winger Yoshikazu Fujita swapping his role as a scrum half this weekend. Also the speedster Teruya Goto is expected to join the squad. Sri Lanka went down 19 – 26 against Japan in the Colombo leg. Iron man Anurudda Wilwara and ever reliable Dhanushka Ranjan are in the form of their life. The tall man Shenal Dias rejoining the side will add as much impetus as his 6’5” frame for the Tuskers in Hong Kong. Fazil Marija’s and Gayan Weerarathne’s experience will as always be a telling factor for the warriors of Sri Lanka Rugby.
Few of the Tuskers were in Singapore last weekend playing in the Singapore Cricket Club’s invitation tournament where they finished as plate semifinalist. That tournament was won by Springboks 7s team.
All the best Tuskers !!
Sri Lanka squad
Sudarshana Muthuthantri (C), Fazil Marija, Gayan Weerarathne, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Nigel Ratwatte, Anurudda Wilwara, Sandun Herath, Shenal Dias, Dhanushka Ranjan, Richard Dharmapala, Kanchana Ramanayaka, Hirantha Perera
