Tuskers left the island early morning ahead of the World Series Qualifiers in Hong Kong, which will be held from 7th – 9th April 2017.
The qualifiers will take place at the famous Hong Kong stadium where all the top tier teams will play at the World Series. The World Series comprises of 10 rounds starting from Dubai 7s and finishing in London 7s at Twickenham. The Hong Kong sevens is in its 7th edition where South Africa currently lead with 126 points followed by England (103) and Fiji (100).
The groups for the Qualifiers
Group G – Papua New Guinea, Uruguay, Spain, Guyana
Group E – Tonga, Uganda, Germany, Jamaica
Group F – Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Chile, Namibia
This is seen as a great opportunity for Sri Lanka to gain experience in the world arena. Twelve (12) teams will compete in the Qualifiers and only the champions will be promoted for the next World Series in 2017/18.
Sri Lanka will play against Chile the South American giants and against the hosts Hong Kong on the 7th April followed by Namibia on day two.
Fortnight ago Sri Lanka Tuskers had their warm-up tournament in Malaysia at the Borneo 7s. It was not an impressive outing for the lads. Nonetheless, captain Danushka Ranjan and the coach Peter Woods believe that they will create some upsets at the qualifiers.
Reeza Raiffaideen and Kavindu Perera are injured and Fazil Marija and Anurudda Wilwara will take their place adding impetus to the side.
“We didn’t go with much preparation for Borneo 7s, but we finished as plate runners-up. However, we have gained the much-needed match fitness. We have Fazil Marija and Anurudda Wilwara back and that will give us experience which will strengthen the squad. Our first target is not on how well we finish the tournament but to beat Chile in the first game” Danushka Ranjan
Coach Peter Woods shared his few words to ThePapare.com before departure“boys worked so hard in the last two weeks, we made three (3) changes from the Borneo 7s team and the team is slightly stronger now and we still got to work hard.” He also said that target is day one the first game against Chile and he said the team just need to start well, in the game of sevens anyone can win on the day.
WATCH: “Boys here they want to play 100mph” Peter Woods
The squad
Danushka Ranjan (C), Fazil Marija, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Danush Dayan, Jason Dissanayake, Suhiru Anthony, Richard Dharmapala, Anurudda Wilwara, Sudarshana Muthuthantri, Kevin Dixon,Saliya Handapangoda, Anuradha Herath.
