Sri Lankan Women Sevens’ Rugby team has started their practice sessions in preparation for the Borneo Sevens earlier than usual this time around after the success they had in the previous tournament. The tournament is schedule to be played in March 2018. More than 20 men’s and women’s teams will be taking part in the tournament.
Sri Lanka turned out to be the surprising winners of the Borneo sevens last time around which was held at the Eagles Rugby Club Sandakan Malaysia in March earlier this year. This time around too they will look to put in a good performance for the tournament and the initial stages of defending the title, the practice sessions, have already started.
Sri Lankan Women’s team has had a huge improvement in terms of their performance. They also managed to finish 5th in the Asian circuit this year. Sri Lanka finished 7th in the third leg held in Colombo and 5th in the leg that was held in South Korea. This has been an excellent year for the Lady Tuskers as they managed to play competitive rugby, losing by mere margins, whereas in the previous years the gaps turned out to be huge.
The Lady Tuskers are led by Randika Kumudumali who captained them in the Asian Circuit as well. The speedsters Dulani Pallekondage and Ayesha Perera, who had a good year in terms of their performance and who were also part of the Asian circuit team have retained their places too. Senior campaigner and former skipper Thanuja Weerakkody together with Anusha Attanayake are also included strengthening the squad in terms of experience.
Ayesha Kaluarachchi and Theekshana Liyanage have also been called up as they featured in the Asian circuit successfully with some vital tries. Sudath Sampath is the coach in charge and has done a good job in bringing up the skills of the ladies in the previous year or so. Imithi Marikar is the High Performance Director of Sri Lanka Rugby.
