A look at the North Western Blacks

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Category: carltonrugby-7s

Published on Friday, 28 October 2011 16:42

Written by Sachin David

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The North Western Blacks are going into the Carlton Super sevens tournament with an abundance experience well matched by up and coming youngsters.

The side will be skippered by the National Sevens capped Chanaka Chandimal. Chandimal who made his debut in the National side last year has now become a permanent fixture in the shorter version of the sport. Chandimal plays his domestic rugby for Air Force SC and is well known for his dynamic play making skills and his darting pace.  Although very young Chandimal brings loads of experience to his side and will ensure that the blacks will be a force to reckon with.

National skippers in the ranks

The blacks have selected twocategory ‘A’ players who could be ranked as two of the best back line players the country has ever seen. Both Pradeep Liyanage and Radhika Hettiarachchi have captained the Sri Lanka sevens teams in the past and will boost the teams experience levels vastly. Pradeep Liyanage is well known for his bursting runs and will be the go to man for the blacks to take the ball in to contact and look to create spaces in center field. Hettiarachchi on the other hand is known to play as a forward in the sevens version and will definitely be the powerhouse player for the blacks.

Top level school boys

The blacks have got themselves three top level schools players in Heshan Maduranga, Dulaj Perera and Jason Dissanayake; all three players having represented the Sri Lanka U20 team in this year’s tour of Hong Kong. Dulaj Perera was also the skipper of the SL under 18 sevens team, in the Junior Commonwealth games. Dissanayake had a dominant school season this year as he was a part of the record braking ‘B’ division champions Vidyartha.

Youthful flair

Apart from the school boys in the team,the North Western blacks have employed the services of a very young bunch of players who have proved to be up there with the best in the last couple of seasons. Heading that list is Havelocks SC open side flanker SudharshanaMuththuthantri along with, Gayan Rathnage, Rajitha Sansoni, Chilanka Samaraweera PradeepKulakulasooriya and Mohamed Fazli. These youngsters have been known for their top performances in both the schools and club leagues in the last few years. Muththuthantri, Rathnage and Sansoni are all National under 20 capped players.

Foreign influence

The Blacks have called for the services of two international players from Fiji and New Zealand. Eroni Ravaga the 22 year old Fijian sevens cap will be making his presence felt for the blacks. Ravaga is a part of the Fijian squad for the IRB sevens series 2010/11. He played his rugby for Nasinu Secondary School before being selected into the Fijian under 19 squad and subsequently the Fijian sevens team. Along with Ravaga the New Zealand born Rocky Khan will also be making an appearance for the Blacks. Khan who plays his rugby in Auckland is one of the emerging players of New Zealand Sevens rugby.

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