Bilal and Sheriff to hit Guangzhou

The Sri Lanka sevens team that has been relatively successful in the recent past will be leaving to China tomorrow evening for the Asian Games that will take place on the 20th and 21st. The team which will comprise of a 12 man squad will be captained once again by Radhika Hettiarachchi. Two replacements have been made since the team’s last outing to Singapore. 

 

Making his debut is former Royalist and CR&FC player Bilal Hassen, and Kandy’s veteran Mohamed Sheriff  who have been infused into the side in place of Romesh Archirige and Dinusha Chaturanga. Bilal earned his selection for his outstanding performance playing for John Keels Holdings at the mercantile 7’s concluded last weekend. He dominated proceedings in the final displaying his skills and heart to a packed rugby audience at the CR & FC on Sunday. His powerful hits and immense lower body strength will give the Lankans some much needed size though questions can be raised on his fitness level as he has not been training with the present sevens squad which is at a peak level of fitness at the moment. Mohamed Sheriff who represented the champions MAS Holdings on the other hand had a mediocre performance at the Mercantile 7’s and has not played to his previous level. 

 

Top players of Sri Lanka sevens opted out of the previous tours sighting various different reasons. Some even had other agendas. Including them in the squad this way would mean that the players who trained hard and made the country proud at the Hong Kong sevens as well as the Dubai sevens will now be gently edged out.

 

The squad that will be leaving tomorrow is mentioned below;

Radhika Hettiarachchi (prop) Sajith Saranga (prop), Charit Seneviratne (Hooker/ scrum half), Shenal Dias (prop), Bilal Hassen (hooker) Dilan Soysa (half back), Srinath Sooriyabandara (half back/ fly half), Chanaka Chandimal (fly half), Anurudhdha Wilwara (center), Mohamed Sheriff (Center), Vishvamithra Jayasinghe (wing), Saliya Handapangoda (wing)

 

Inthi Marrikkar will continue his responsibilities as coach along with Christopher Jordashe who will manage the side.  

The draw for the Asian games has not been released as yet.

 

Log on to rugbylanka.blogspot.com for the latest news on the team’s performance.

Pendulum swings as MAS win mercantile title for the 1st time

MAS emerged as the cup champions in the 40th edition of the mercantile sevens tournament against a strong JKH side. It was the first time MAS tasted victory under skipper Dinesh Kumara. MAS who fielded a full on Sri Lankan line up had a hard road to clinching the cup with JKH leading till the final minute of the game. The winners who possessed some of the biggest names of in local rugby were one of the front runners to clinch the title at the start of the event. The start studded MAS line up featured the likes of Saliya Kumara, Lasintha de Costa, Ashan de Costa, Mohomed Sheriff, Fazil Marija, and Dinesh Kumara. 

 

JKH who fielded the young and upcoming stars gave the winners the scare of their life and almost ended up winning the encounter.  Bilal Hassen the former Royal College crack number eight gave in a mammoth effort in the final bulldozing his way through in many occasion which resulted in him being adjudged as the ‘Player of the finals. Srinath Sooriyabandara and Dushanth Lewke gave in a superb effort to keep the MAS team guessing at all times. 

MAS started off the game with a bang with CR&FC wing three Dinesh Kumara scoring two tries in quick succession to give the winners the early lead. Both tries came after a series of good hands which resulted in the overlap and paved way for easy tries for Kumara. Last year’s cup runner up JKH then put up their first score on the board with a try through diminutive scrum half Charith Seneviratne who sizzled his way to score under the post. MAS then made their intentions clear before half time with a brilliant try from skipper Fazil Marija who received a passed from a flummoxing Mohomed Sheriff.  Not to be outdone by this JKH replied with another try by Air Force scrum half Charith Seneviratne who scored under the post to end the first half at 15-14 in favour of MAS. 

 

The 2nd half began with a rapid pace with JKH coming all out which resulted in Ratheesha Seneviratne scoring an unconverted try.  Lasintha de coast then scored mid right to take back the lead with Saliya Kumara converting to make it 22-19. MAS who played a fast open game lacked the finishing touches and made a lot of uncharacteristic errors which resulted in JKH scoring next through Bilal Hassen.  The power house, Bilal Hassen thumped his way through a couple of defenders with his trademark hit and scored near the post to take the lead back to JKH. At this point everyone present at the ground was certain of a John Keels win but MAS has other ideas. They scored a peach of a try through skipper Fazil Marija who sprinted to score under the post to win the title for the first time for MAS. It was a fitting end to a brilliant tournament.

 

V.V Karunaratne emerged as the shield champions in their debut run in the mercantile sevens tournament beating a worn out HDPL ‘B’ side in the final. V.V Karunarante team was one of the top contenders for the title having beaten all their opponents by convincing margins during hte early stages of the tournament. 

 

An interesting feat to be noted is that Ceylon development bank (CDB) put up the highest ever ‘points for’ aggregate  by a debutant in the 40 year history of the tournament which was 173 and maintained an over 30 average right throughout the tournament expect for the semi-final game against V.V. Karunaratne. The best performer in the shield category was also from V.V Karunaratne’s Ralphton William. William a former Mahanama player shone out from the rest with his thumping tackles and was always on the ball which resulted in him keeping a number of tries. 

 

The bowl segment was won by commercial credit beating a star studded HSBC side. Commercial credit who had a lot of school levers in their ranks proved to be far fitter and organised when compared to their opponents. Lee Keegal together with Sohiru Anthony and Sudharashana Muththuthanthri stood out with their play with the former wining the best player’s award in this category. 

 

Access and Dialog battled it out for the plate championship with Access coming out winners convincingly. The Access team displayed some scorching rugby with Chanaka Chandimal, Dhanushka Perera and Nuwan Hettiarachchi being the stand out players. Shenal Dias the under 19 national skipper was a towering strength for Dialog in both attack and defence and was well supported by the likes of Sajith Saranga and Henry Terence. 

 

Ashan de Costa of MAS was adjudged as the player of the tournament. Ashan who played in the wing three position was the finisher for the MAS team and went over in a number of occasions to pile up the score for his team.

Sri Lanka: Asia’s rugby old dog sees inert progress

Sri Lanka who started playing rugby in the 1870’s has a rich history of having the longest organized club rugby in the whole of Asia starting back in 1879. Sri Lanka started the oval-shaped- ball- game just 8 years after the first ever rugby union game in England.  Rugby was introduced to schools with Kingswood taking upon the game as early as 1870.  Subsequently the clubs embraced the game with Colombo Football Club (currently known as the CR&FC) being the first to latch on inaugurating on the 28th of June 1879. 

 

Sri Lanka played their first international game in 1907 against the New Zealand All Blacks in which the All Blacks won the game comprehensively by 33-6. Ironically the New Zealanders took to the run pass game in the year 1860 just 20 years before we started the game. The New Zealanders have been one of the top international teams in the world for over a decade playing their first ever rugby union game against Australia 4 years before Sri Lanka in 1903 in which they incidentally won 22-3. Similarly if we take a look at one of the Asian power houses, Japan which took to the game in 1899 is currently one of the only two federations from a "Tier 2" country with a seat on the International Rugby Board executive council, the sport's international governing body (the other is Rugby Canada). 

 

Hong Kong who were numero uno at the recently concluded Borneo 7’s tournament organized the 1st ever Hong Kong 7’s tournament back in 1976. On 28th, March, 1976, clubs from Indonesia, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Japan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Fiji participated in the first Hong Kong Sevens Tournament at the Hong Kong Football Club. 

 

Sri Lanka who have played the game for more than a century started off with the big guns playing alongside the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Japan etc. While these teams have progressed in leaps and bounds, rugby in Sri Lanka has been more than dormant. It has taken a backward progression with more recent teams like Malaysia (who started rugby in 1903) overtaking us in terms of development. Japan for example is currently the number one team in Asia having started rugby 20 years after Sri Lanka. Having said that, we cannot compare our country with what countries like Japan offer in terms of resources etc. The growth of Japanese rugby in the early 20th century was astronomical - by the 1920s, there were nearly 1,500 rugby clubs, and more than 60,000 registered players, which meant that its resources were larger than those of Scotland, Wales and Ireland combined.

 

Where has Sri Lanka gone wrong? Is it the infrastructure? Is it the resources? Or is it just the mind set of everyone involved with rugby in Sri Lanka? In the recently concluded Borneo 7’s tournament held in Malaysia, Sri Lanka put in a spirited effort ending their campaign being placed 6th which ultimately resulted them in qualifying for next year’s Hong Kong and Dubai 7’s tournaments. We achieved this feat after sending more or less third string side which included two school boy ruggerites and a bunch of armatures to the international arena. What would have been the outcome if we had fielded the likes of Fazil Marija, Saliya Kumara, Pradeep Liyanage, Gayan and Roshan Weeraratne etc? Would we have given Japan a fight with the inclusion of these national rugby giants is a question to raise? Also on the other hand talking about the positives, though we sent a rather inexperienced team into deep waters, they have yet again done the unthinkable and made mother Lanka proud by putting up a commendable performance ending 6th in the tournament which enabled us to qualify for two major international seven’s tournaments. 

 

This is a clear indication in the depth of talent, skill and temperament in the country. More importantly it goes to show that we have more than just one team which can step up to the mark and represent the country. Then why are we back lagging when compared to the other Asian countries or countries as a whole? One thing the rugby body must keep in mind is that under the current local structure, Sri Lanka will not progress in the game. We have to modernize rugby in Sri Lanka if we are to compete in the big league and become a once known rugby giant in Asia. It won’t be too long before we see teams like India, Pakistan and Singapore beating us in the world and Asian stage. 

 

Currently there is a lot of backing for rugby in the country with a lot of cooperates getting involved to improve the standards of the game. The schools are infusing top level of Rugby giving the national grid plenty of choice. We must utilize the resources we have in order to improve the level of rugby and bring back the glory years of yesteryear.

Carlton Rugby 7’s Unveiled at Media Conference Today

Tharunyata Hetak-main organizers of the Carlton 7’s together with Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union held their press conference for the tournament  of the year to be held on the 27th and 28th of this month.


This mega rugby event which is taking pride of place in the rugby calendar is to accommodate some of the top rugby playing nations. With last year’s champs Fiji, Samoa, new comers Wales, Kenya and New Zealand are some of the top Nations taking part in the tournament.

The head table consisted of Nishantha Wickramasinghe- Chairman of Sri Lankan Airlines, Mr.Lalith Piyum Perera- General Secratary (Tharunyata Hetek), Mr. Lasitha Gunaratne- Vice President, Sri Lanka Rugby Union, Mr. George Simpkin- Tournament Director, Mr. Sanjeewa Perera- Snr. Marketing Manager Etisalat

The prize money for the tournament is as follows
Winners – 25,000$
Runner up – 15,000$
Semi Finalists- 5,000$ each
As mentioned by the vice president of the Sri Lanka rugby football union, this prize money is only second to that of the Hong Kong 7's. This tournament has also received the blessing of the International rugby body and referees will be flown in from the Asian region to officiate this international tournament.
Having this tournament for the second year running is certainly a good thing for Sri Lankan and also Asian rugby as exposes them to international teams. tournament Director stated that one of the main concerns for Asian rugby teams is that they dont get enough international exposure with the top teams in the world and what this tournament does is that it will bridge that gap.

The Pools are as follows

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Fiji	Kenya	Samoa	New Zealand
Spain	Australia	PNG	South Africa
Korea	Germany	Japan	China
Malaysia	Chinese Taipei	Kazakstan	SL

Sri Lanka Strive for more

The Sri Lanka sevens team that toured for the Borneo 7s has de-routed to Singapore in search of further  warm up/exposure ahead of the Asian Games and Carlton Sevens to be held later this month. Speaking to SLRFU officials ThePapare learned that Sri Lanka will be moving on to Singapore tonight in order to play the annual Singapore sevens to be worked off on the 6th and 7th of November 2010.

 

The sevens squad skippered by Radhika Hettiarachchi will be flying to Singapore from Borneo later today. The team performed relatively well; despite little preparation and lot of controversy! Sri Lanka toppled debutant Philippines 26-12 in their opening game and was overrun by power house Japan in their second group game 31-0.

 

 

However, Sri Lanka qualified for the cup quarter final to play China on the second day of the tournament. They battled hard with Srinath Sooriyabandara getting into action scoring 2 tries and Vishvamitra Jayasinghe scoring 1 try. Unfortunately the Lankans could not hold on as China scored 3 converted tries and a penalty to seal the game. Next the Lankans played Guam in the plate semi finals winning by a margin of 31- 12. Vishvamitra stared for the Lankans scoring 3 tries with Sajith Saranga, Sooriyabandara and Shenal Dias scoring  1 each. 

 

The Lankans went up against the strong Malaysian side which fielded 5 Fijians, which incidentally seems to be the trend among Asian teams these days, with Hong Kong featuring big burly Australians and Englishman as well. This was made further clear when Hong Kong usurped current champs and big league Japan 31-28 to become champions of the Borneo Sevens.

However the Malaysians were unable to use their big Islanders as they pleased as the young lions refused to give in. The game was closely fought having been ten all at half time and remaining that way until the last few seconds of the game when Malaysia pulled off a score to seal the game and the Plate. 

Sooriyabandara was definitely the player of the tournament for Sri Lanka having collected a tally of seven tries. ‘Podi’ as he is fondly referred to was the star of the Lankan side in Delhi last month as well when he turned on the heat on at the Commonwealth Games. Having made a niche for himself in the sevens version, he will be looking to continue the great form in Singapore as well as the Asian Games and Carlton sevens. 

 

Sri Lanka have now qualified for the prestigious Hong Kong sevens and Dubai Sevens in 2011 which are the two most awaited sevens tournament on the sevens World Series. 

 

The SLRFU is pleased with the achievements of the 2nd string side and stated that they have great confidence in their players and that the Lankans will fight hard to bring back some silverware from Singapore. Its baffling to think what Sri Lanka Rugby can achieve if all quarters co-operate.

Schools Rugby Awards In Danger Of Not Being Held

The annual awards ceremony of the Singer inter-school rugby league tournament which is held to felicitate the ruggerites of the winning and runner up teams unfortunately seems to be in danger of being held this year,as a result of an administration issue of the Sri Lanka Schools Rugby Football Association (SLSRFA).

  

The Singer league which ended earlier this year, many players and fans were awaiting this prestigious awards ceremony of the league to be staged in the near future. However, that much anticipated awards ceremony does not seem to be on the agenda of the SLSRFA which went through a series of criticism and insults due to their incapability of completing the schools knock-out tournament after being taken to courts by Isipathana Maha Vidyalaya following the stoning incident which took place at the Semi Finals against St.Peter’s. 

 

The knock-out tournament which was sponsored by Nestle Lanka Limited was merely pushed away this year, with the game of rugby being the ultimate loser as depicted by many local rugby pundits and fans.

The sponsors of the league Singer Sri Lanka Limited is determined to felicitate the winners and runners up of each division of the 2010 league tournaments said a spokesperson of the organization. He also stated that there has been no certain assurance given to them by the schools rugby governing body which is the SLSRFA.  “Usually the SLSRFA coordinated with us on holding this ceremony each year and with a great deal of success too,” he mentioned. “But, this year obviously with their house not being in order, they have failed to liaise with us to hold this show as planned. They also may have had their problems but the players should not be punished for their bloomers. That is the bottom line”. In addition he stated that “I know that both players and fans have been looking forward to it for months now as there has been a big delay in felicitating the winners and runners up.“But I would like to assure the stakeholders that as a rugby-loving and committed sponsor Singer will not leave either the players or the fans in the lurch, and will go out of our way to hold it before the year runs out.”

Sri Lanka qualify for HK, Dubai sevens

The Sri Lankan rugby team finished their Borneo campaign qualifying for next year’s Hong Kong sevens as well as the Dubai sevens. The participation in what is considered to be the most important rugby 7’s tournament in the world ‘ The Hong Kong sevens’ was made possible when the Lankan boys managed to get into the plate finals against Malaysia in the Borneo 7’s tournament. 

 

Sri Lanka beat new comers Philippines 26-12 in their group match which was played earlier, with Srinath ‘Podi’ Sooriyabandara scoring a hat trick of tries. Forward Sajith Saranga was the other player to get in to the score books as he also scored a try for the Lankans. At half time the score was in favour of the Lions 12-5 and they kept the pressure on from there as they kept on going at the Philippines.

 

Sri Lanka however did not have the best of outings against Asian Giants Japan as they got thrashed 31-0. The Lankans were no match for the Japanese as they went through the Lankan defence with ease. This was also the last game of the first day. 

 

In the finals of the plate, Sri Lanka met another up and coming power house Malaysia. The host nation came in with serious intentions of winning the match as they played some very impressive rugby. The Malaysians knew that Sri Lanka was going to be a threat and wee not going to take things lightly. Even though the Malaysian team having fielded 5 Fijians, they could not break the dead lock till the final minute where they made the winning try. The score stood at 10 all until the final play of the match. The try scorers for the Lankans were Srinath Sooriyabandara and Air Force player Chanaka Chandimal. The young scrum half ‘Podi’ had the best tournament for the Lankans.