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

Lock forward and skipper Ishan Noor opened the account for the Red Shirts when he crashed through for a try by the right corner flag in the 15th minute. Fly half Nalin Kumara added the extra points.

Three minutes later his hooker Arun Kumar ran circles around the CH and FC defence to score a near the post try with Kumara making no mistake with the conversion as CR and FC extended the lead to 14 – 0.

Five minutes before the breather CR winger Kavindu Perera scored an unconverted try to give the red shirts a 19-0 lead. The tough defence of CR did not allow their opponents to penetrate their territory except on one occasion.

Shortly before half time, Danuka Ratnayake scored the only try for the home team with Janith Chandimal being successful with the conversion. At half time CR led 19-7.

A few minutes after the breather Ramanayake scored his first try after dashing through 20 metres. Kavindu de Costa added the extra points.

Ramanayake also contributed with another try in the 13th minute of the second half and Costa added the extra points to make it 33-7 for the visitors.

Minute’s later hooker Kumar scored an unconverted try which helped to increase CR’s tally by five points [38-7].

CR rubbed more salt to CH’s wounds when Jason Dissanayake ran into score a try which was successfully converted by De Costa for the Red shirts to run out worthy winners by 45-7.

Meanwhile, Japan further underlined their supremacy in Asian rugby when they defeated Hong Kong 29-22 in the men’s Cup Championship final after leading 17-12 at half time.

The Japanese women also bagged the Cup Championship title as they beat China 33-12 in the final after leading 19-0 at half time.

The Tuskers almost went on the rampage as they mesmerised the opposition while running down as many as seven tries and converting five of them to complete a successful campaign after having built up a commanding 26-0 lead at half time.

In fact the hosts made certain that there will be no contest at the end when they touched down on four occasions within the first seven minutes of play through Sudarshan Muthuthantri (2), Srinath Sooriyabandara (1) and Kanchana Ramanayake (1).
z_p12Sri-Lanka.jpg
Fazil Marija plays in his last match as Sri Lanka captain.
Pictures by Sulochana Gamage

In the second half of course Malaysia managed to reduce the deficit and had the consolation of scoring two tries through Serupepeli Naqasima and Etonia Vaqa Saukuru.

However, Anuruddha Wilwara struck twice in a spectacular manner to seal the match and Kanchana Ramanayake scored his second try of the game as Sri Lanka ran out victorious by a convincing margin.

Earlier, Sri Lanka went down fighting 19-26 against Japan in the Cup Championship semifinals after trailing 7-19 at half time.

Sri Lanka of course made a fine late rally in a desperate attempt to stretch their more fancied opponents with the dynamic Dhanushka Ranjan scoring two magnificent tries.

But the formidable Japanese team had the game well under control as they wrapped up the semifinal with Teryua Goto, Haruki Saito, Jamie Henry and Lote Tuqari adding the finishing touches.

This was after Sri Lanka had pulled off a sensational 19-12 victory over South Korea in the quarterfinals with Anuruddha Wilwara emerging as the match winner with two late tries.

Meanwhile the Sri Lanka women’s team had to be content with the seventh position when they lost to Singapore 14-17 in a playoff match.

The results:

Men’s Cup Championship (quarterfinals): Sri Lanka beat South Korea 19-12, Japan beat China 31-5, Malaysia beat Thailand 43-0, Hong Kong beat Chinese Taipei 33-5; (semifinals): Japan beat Sri Lanka 26-19; Hong Kong beat Malaysia 38-7; (final): Japan beat Hong Kong 29-22. Men’s third place: Sri Lanka beat Malaysia 45-12; Men’s Plate Championship final: South Korea beat Chinese Taipei 17-7. Women’s Cup Championship final: Japan beat China 33-12; Women’s Plate Championship final: Kazakhstan beat Uzbekistan 43-0; Women’s third place: Hong Kong beat Thailand 21-15.