Sri Lanka’s rugby sevens team that excelled at the Borneo sevens and was packed off the Singapore from there has come up trumps in Singapore as well.
Showing that rugby is clearly heart this minus-big-names side which was hurriedly put together for the Commonwealth Games in the midst of chaos and controversy with top ranking national players backing out due to various reasons, has out-done themselves yet again. Its latest acquisition, some silver in Singapore is a the proud heritage of hard work and guts from all quarters.
Though Singapore was a last minute addition, the team playing under the name Colombo Cavaliers played well to win the Bowl championship by beating a strong Japanese Tenariwa team.
In the group stages Sri Lanka faced the cup runners up, the South African Vipers who won convincingly with a score line of 47- 14. Next up Sri Lanka put up a gutsy fight against the much bigger and faster Kenyan Impala but lost 21-19. In Lanka’s final match they faced East Arnhem rugby where they lost 15-05.
The caveliers who was unable to record a single win in their group games faced the hosts Singapore Cricket Club in the bowl semi-final on the second day. Sri Lanka played well to record their 1st win at the tournament winning by 26 points to 19. The Lions next opponent were the Australian Perth Southern Lions where they pulled off a convincing win against the much bigger Aussies beating them by 38 points to 7 to qualify for the bowl finals where they met the Japanese Tenariwa team. The Lankans battled hard to come up on top leading by seven points at full time with a final score of 19 points to 12.
The Colombo Cavs who should remain unchanged will travel to China next week for the Asian games tournament where the sevens will take place on the18th and 19th of November. Sri Lanka will be coming in fighting hard and are tipped to be strong medal contenders.
It is now evident that the SLRFU has got a good system developing. The team is now finally gelling together and has got winning into its system and a strong bond seems to have been formed among them. When asking the coach Inthi Marikkar if there was one other player who would want to add into the team to help them win Gold in China he replied; that there was no one. He explained that the team was playing well together and any changes will demoralize them.
The tournament saw 24 teams taking part. With Casuarina Cougars, Cottesloe, East Arnhem Rugby, NT Mosquitoes, Palmyra, Southern Lions and Sunnybank representing Australia. Horowhenua-Kapiti, Ponsonby represented New Zealand. Borneo Eagles, Cobra and NS Wanderers were the Malaysian teams taking part. Japan was represented by Japan Samurais and Tamariva RFC. Singapore Barbarians and Singapore Cricket Club were the Singaporean teams in the competition. Hong Kong Dragons, The Flying Kukris, Davetalevu, Almaty RFC, SA Vipers, Penguins, Colombo Cavaliers, Impala, were some of the other teams in the competitions.
The Ablitt Cup was won by the Penguins from the United Kingdom whilst the Sunnybank team from Australia was the plate winners beating the NS wonderers in the final. The Jug final was contested by the Perth Southern lions and Casuarina Cougars from Australia.
