A stunning run to two consecutive finals in the first two legs at Hong Kong and South Korea has given the side confidence and belief that they are ready to build on these effort.

Sri Lanka has come a long way since last year being placed fourth to being second this year.

The players are going to have no excuses in terms of being able to come out and be comfortable where they are playing as they are a bunch of professional rugby players. In reality that comes with added experience, expectation as well and a bit of pressure the players put on themselves since they are playing as host in front of their home crowd.

There is plenty on the line for a Sri Lanka sevens rugby outfit that has exuded a relaxed and focused vibe during training for the past two weeks at Racecourse, with the winner of the three-round Asian Seven’s series booking a spot in the main draw of next year’s Singapore Sevens tournament and Hong Kong Sevens. They are bound to give off their very best to qualify as this is their final hurdle.

Furthermore, the top two overall secure their place in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series qualifier in Hong Kong next year and a fast start to the series this weekend is a key factor.

It’s always a bonus that doing well will get you to these kinds of tournaments and playing against the top teams in Asia. Chairman of selectors Michel Jayasekara said, “After a long time we have got a well-balanced side with a blend of experience and young talent, hence I personally believe that we can definitely look at winning the Cup championship in Colombo. We are also keeping an open mind to see if there’s any possibility that we could get selected for the upcoming World Series Rugby Sevens, if we can do that we have achieved our goal.”

The Sri Lankan side is now far better placed mentally to deal with the unpredictable nature of Sevens rugby than they were 12 months ago after two successive runners-up wins in the ongoing Asia Rugby Sevens Series. This was proved in Hong Kong where Sri Lanka narrowly lost to the host 22-17 due to a knocked on final try awarded to Hong Kong by the Aussie referee and they were trounced 36-0 in the final in South Korea.

What was really pleasing about is that last season Sri Lanka sort of had a bit of a look at their game, and although they hadn’t done much wrong they still finished overall fourth in Asia, Sri Lanka had to get a better team on the day to play the match physically and mentally. Head trainer Nick Groube, who was a vastly experienced trainer with Canterbury Crusaders in New Zealand came in and put it right this time where Sri Lanka managed to learn some lessons and put them in to play It is a lot about the training and work they do purely under Groube to condition the players mentally and physically to be able to handle pressure. Sometimes the players totally get it a bit wrong like we did against Hong Kong in the finals after beating South Korea, but it’s about how you respond and Groube is definitely the man to take our rugby forward internationally.

A win or a top-two finish in Sri Lanka puts Hong Kong in the box seat to take out the overall series this weekend but playing in Sri Lanka will be tough competition, therefore we have to wait and see whether their power pack display carried throughout the first and second legs will be enough for them to seal victory in the end.

SRI LANKA SQUAD: Danushka Ranjan (Captain, Kandy SC), Srinath

Sooriyabandara (vice-captain, Kandy SC), Dulaj Perera (Havelocks), Omalka Gunaratne (CR & FC), Kevin Dixon (Havelocks), Tarinda Ratwatte (CR & FC), Danush Dayan (Kandy SC), Hirantha Perera (Havelocks), Richard Dharmapala (Kandy SC), Kanchana Ramanayake (Kandy SC), Kavindu Perera (CR & FC), Sudarshana Muthuthanththri (Havelocks), Coach: Matt Turner , Head Trainer: Nick Groube.

Madushanka recorded 14.42 metres in the under 21 boys shot-putt event. Incidentally, Madushanka’s brother Manesh Malintha also won a gold medal in the under 17 discuss throw event. The opening ceremony was ceremonially held in the presence of Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam who was the chief guest.

The students of Kingswood and Seetha Devi sang the National Anthem while the Minister hoisted the National flag.

Sunil Hettiarachchi hoisted the All Island school flag while the Central Province flag was hoisted by Governor Niluka Ekanayake.

The Directors of Provincial Education and Directors of Provincial Sports hoisted the Provinces flag and sports flag respectively. The All Island School song was sung by Kingswood and Seethadevi students. The torch was carried by 2015 All Island Schools Games best sportswoman Rumeshika Ratnayake of St. Joseph’s College, Kegalle and the best sportsman of throwing events S.P.B. Bawantha of Weera Keppetipola National School, Akuramboda.

The welcome speech was delivered by Education Ministry Secretary Sunil Hettiarachchi. The Games was officially opened by the Minister of Education.

Yamani Dulanjali of Ambagawuwa Central College made the Competitors’ Pledge while the Referees Pledge was made by Neville Rodrigo. The opening ceremony ended with a beautiful ‘Ves’ dancing item.
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Karunasena, ironically, passed away on his birthday – September 26, and his remains, according to his wishes, was handed to the Medical College.

A former Isipathana MV prop forward, Karunasena was a popular figure at CH where he helped the club and several players financially. He was a successful businessman, one of the pioneers to import sprats from Thailand to this country.

Under Karunasena’s leadership CH won the Clifford Cup for the first time under a Sri Lankan in 1982. That year CH was voted the Observer-Milo Most Popular Rugby Club.

After a short stint with CH, Karunasena joined Havelocks SC and captained them in 1988. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Scrum half Kevin Dixon (right knee), forward Jason Dissanayake(concussion occurred while playing for Kandy sports club in the Western Asia rugby tournament which was held in the UAE last week) and have been ruled out due to injuries and centre DinushaChathuranga was left out for reasons best known to the selectors. They were replaced by the Kandy Sports Club players scrum half Srinath Sooriyabandara, winger Richard Dharmapala and centre Kanchana Ramanayake coming in place of Dinusha Chathuranga.

Meanwhile the regular sevens skipper Sudarshana Muthuthantriwill not take part in this tournament as he’s still not fully fit and nursing for an injury to his wrist fracture, although he was seen training with the national squad at practices in Race Course grounds.

Earlier before the first leg tournament in Hong Kong, several national senior players opted out stating they were injured and were unable to take part in training, but returned back immediately to practices straight after the make shift Sri Lankan team with several newcomers with the Director coaching Inthisham Marikar’s supervision, guidance and sheer hard work along with new captain Danushka Ranjan; surprised every one by emerging runners up to host Hong Kong.

Sri Lanka have been drawn in pool- B, alongside China, Singapore and Malaysia while the Pool A will feature first leg winners Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Japan and host South Korea.

The Tuskers will play their first game against Singapore on 24th September at 9:00am (SL Time), at 11:55am (SL Time) with Malaysia and finally at 3:15pm against China on the same day.

Sri Lanka squad to Korea : Danushka Ranjan (Captain)(Kandy SC), Dulaj Perera (Vice Captain)(Havelocks), Omalka Gunaratne (CR & FC), Sashan Mohamed(CR & FC),Tarinda Ratwatte (CR & FC), Danush Dayan (Kandy SC), Saliya Handapangoda (Navy), Srinath Sooriyabandara (Kandy SC), Richard Dharmapala (Kandy SC), Kanchana Ramanayake (Kandy SC), Kavindu Perera (CR & FC),Hirantha Perera (Havelocks), Coach – Mat Turner ,Head Trainer – Nick Groube, Manager – Rohan Chinthaka

Coming to the final as favourites Isipathana had no answer to the spectacular brand of rugby dished out by the hill capital boys of Kingswood and lost the contest fair and square to give Kingswood a Cup championship victory after a long layoff. Kingswood ended up as the unbeaten champions beating all their opponents by huge margins.

For the victorious Kingswood side the tries were scored by K.M. Kulasekara, J.A. Ratnayake and A.J. Dilshan one a piece Place kicker S.T. Seneviratne displayed fabulous kicking form by slotting in all three conversions. For the losers Nadeesha Jayampathi scored the solitary try.

Kingswood’s unexpected win spoilt Isipathana coach Nilfer Ibrahim’s hopes of departing from the team as coach on a winning note after guiding the green and white shirts to victory in the league and knockout championships during the season.

In the other finals played yesterday at the same venue, Maliyadeva College Kurunegala thrashed Moratuwa MV by 44-0 to win the Shield, Trinity College Kandy grabbed the Bowl beating home town rivals Vidyartha College Kandy by 41-0 and the Plate was won by St Joseph’s College Maradana beating St John’s College Nugegoda by 38-3.

Isipathana reached the final with a hard fought 8-0 victory over St. Anthony’s Kandy in their semi-final while Kingswood beat Zahira College Maradana 17-0 in the second semi-finals.

“We are ready for the final as we have done our homework and played as a team in every match of this tournament,” said ex-Kingswoodian and head coach of Isipathana College Nilfer Ibrahim.

“Kingswood has come to a final after a long time and also as a team they are playing very well so I am not taking them lightly and I expect a tough fight from them. This is my final match as head coach of Isipathana hence we are going all out to win this final. I want to end my coaching stint with Isipathana on a winning note,” he said.

Other finals scheduled for today at the same venue are:

2.00pm: Shield final – Maliyadeva College Kurunegala vs Moratuwa MV

3.00pm: Bowl final – Vidyartha College Kandy vs Trinity College Kandy

4.00pm: Plate final – St Joseph’s College Maradana vs St John’s College Nugegoda.

The two wins saw Sri Lanka move to the top of the Under 18 and Under 20 Asian rugby rankings in the elite division.

Pictures show MJM Mushtaq coach of the Sri Lanka Under 18 team and captain Naveen Heenkankanamge receiving a cheque for Rs. 1.5 million from President Maithripala Sirisena and (below) Sri Lanka Under 20 team coach Sudath Sampath and captain Kevin Dixon receiving a cheque for Rs. 1,525,000 from President Sirisena (top). WAI

Under Mushtaq’s direction Sri Lanka went onto to emerge Asian Under 18 Sevens champions and earn the number one ranking in Asia – a rare feat for the sport in the country.

“In the semi-finals from nowhere we came from behind to beat the host Taipei 19-14 after trailing 12-14,” said Mushtaq.

“We were down to only five players with less than two minutes to go but it was a fabulous effort. The entire squad of players played with a big heart right throughout the tournament,” he said.

In the final Sri Lanka beat the same opponents 10-5.

“Let me tell you it was not a rosy path to glory. Before our departure we were hampered with injuries to three of our key players including vice-captain Sumudhu Rankothge, winger Diyath Fernando and forward Cristian Dilile,” said Mushtaq.

“To make matters worse we had to leave to Taipei with only 11 players as Gamunu Chethiya did not get the required visa to travel. Most of the rugby loving people in the country never knew these things, which took place prior to us leaving the country to take part in this rugby tournament,” he said.

Mushtaq said that their main strength in the tournament was the excellent defence which really paid off well in the end.

Sometimes the people behind the success are overshadowed in victory but Mushtaq was quick to acknowledge the tremendous impact that director coaching Inthi Marikar had made.

“Inti taught me everything. My win is like Inthi’s win that’s how much he has taught me,” said Mushtaq.

“Inti is a very hard working coach. He always passed his tactical knowledge to us and his contribution was immense and his vision was to take our rugby to the next level. We have achieved success now we need to continue it,” he said.

“Inti always told me that he wanted to build the team to achieve a high standard. His motivation was that. He has made a lot of sacrifices. He wanted to win the Cup championship more than any one.

“He was constantly behind me and the team giving the perfect mental strength and making the environment for the players to get on with their required job easily. For me Inthi was the man behind our success of winning this under 18 Asian rugby Sevens championship and undoubtedly our pillar of strength,” Mushtaq said.

He also thanked the Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, SLRFU president Asanga Seneviratne, Canterbury Crusaders trainer Nick Grouber and the selection committee to helping Sri Lanka achieve this unique victory.

Sri Lanka lost the final 22-17 but it could easily have been 17-15 in favour of Sri Lanka had it not been for a blunder on the part of the Australian referee.

There is a saying that pictures don’t lie.

The picture depicted here shows clearly that the crucial try scored by Lee Jones for Hong Kong in the Asian Rugby Sevens Series final against Sri Lanka is a knock-on. Jones is clearly shown dropping the ball to the ground while scoring the try – the player’s hands are not in control of the ball while scoring the try.

According to the IRB rules the hands or hand should be on the ball when the player touches down for a try and he should be in control of the ball when he touches down. In this instance it is not so and thus it is not a try and it goes down as a knocked on and, a penalty should be awarded to Sri Lanka from that position. The grieving party has 48 hours from the incident to lodge an official complaint and the SLRFU can still go ahead and do it. This is not the first time such an incidence has happened concerning Sri Lanka. In the 2010 Asian Games in China a similar incident occurred in the Cup quarter-finals against Hong Kong. On that occasion the SLRFU remained silent.

Asanga Seneviratne, president of the SLRFU is also the secretary of the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) and Sri Lanka has very good reasons to lodge a protest.

Hong Kong opened scoring in the very first minute through winger Lee Jones who touched down for an unconverted try to go into 5-nil lead. They scored their second unconverted try in the third minute of play through Alex Mcqueen who collected a pass from his brother Tom Mcqueen and scored to increase the lead to 10-nil which was the score at half time.

Soon after the breather Hong Kong scored their third unconverted try through captain Max Woodward in the eighth minute to increase the score further to 15-nil.

In the very last move of the day Hong Kong scored a try through the other brother Tom Mcqueen which was converted by brother Alex to earn a 22 points to nil victory against the very young and newlook inexperienced Sri Lankans who were sans nine experienced regulars from Kandy Sports Club.

Earlier in the day in their first match Sri Lanka thrashed Chinese Taipei by 43 points to 12.

The Tusker’s tries were scored by Kevin Dixon (two), Hirantha Perera (one), Tarinda Ratwatte (one), Jason Dissanayake (one) and Saliya Hadapangoda (one). Dulaj Perera slotted in five conversions.

In their next match Sri Lanka routed Malaysia 40-12 with tries scored by Jason Dissanayake (two), Tarinda Ratwatte (two), Danushka Ranjan (one), Kavindu Perera (one) and Dinusha Chathuranga (one). Two conversions each were put over by Dulaj Perera and Jason Dissanayake.

Sri Lanka will play opposite group leaders China in the Cup semi-finals while the other semi-final will most probably be against group leaders Hong Kong and the opposite group runners up Koreans.

In the other group matches which took place yesterday Asian giants and rank number one team Japan were relegated to the Bowl competition after shockingly losing 10-12 to China in their first group game and to the Koreans 5-19 in their last group match and crashed out the Cup championship..

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT

*Meanwhile in the women’s competition Sri Lanka fared really well when they thrashed Uzbekistan by 39 points to nil and went down fighting to Asian champions and number one ranked Thailand by 7-14 and China by 0-37.