Dulani Pallikkondage and Sanjeewani Wijethilake scored two tries each as the Sri Lanka women registered their first win, 22-05, of the second leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series played in Korea.
Both teams came into their second and final game of the day with defeats — Korea lost to Japan 00-48, Sri Lanka lost to Hong Kong 00-41 — in their respective first game.
Both teams failed to turn up in the first four minutes as the game was marred with error after error, starting off with the Sri Lankan women’s kick off.
However, it was the Korean women who finally managed to turn up and record a score five minutes into the game.
Lim Jaewon scored following a half break by Kwon Seulgi and opened the scoring in the game and incidentally their first score in the second leg after being held scoreless in the first game against Japan. The conversion went astray as the score remained at 5-nil in favour of Korea.
Restarts continued to worry the women, this time Korera misjudging their restart following their score.
Sri Lanka capitalized on the error and scored their first try of the game and tournament through a score from Dulani Pallikkondage. The resulting conversion went astray as the game was tied 5 all, headed into half time.
Half time: Korea 5 – Sri Lanka 5
The second half began in similar fashion to the first, however, this time it was the Sri Lankan women who got out of the blocks fastest, scoring through Sanjeewani Wijethilake following an extended period of pressure. Ayesha Kaluarchchi added the extras to put someday light between the two sides.
Minutes later Dulani Pallikkondage scored her second of the game — seventh try of the series — as the Sri Lankan women seemed to pull away towards their first victory of the second leg.
Hosts of the tournament, Korea pushed the Lankan women to the brink, however, sloppy handling let the hosts women down failing to register any points in the second half.
With a minute on the clock, Sri Lanka turned defence into attack, as Sanjeewani Wijethilake scooted away, wriggling through would be tacklers to score her second and to place the capital ‘W’ in front of the Sri Lankan women’s name, for the first time in the second leg.
Sri Lanka women will now face the mighty Japanese women in their final group game tomorrow at 7.14am Sri Lanka time.
Full Time: Korea 5 lost to Sri Lanka 22
Score Breakdown:
Korea: Lim Jaewon 1T
Sri Lanka: Dulani Pallikkondage 2T, Sanjeewani De Silva 2T, Ayesha Kaluarchchi 1C
Hong Kong ran riot, thrashing a Sri Lanka Women’s outfit — who looked clueless in both attack and defence — 44-00 in both teams opening fixtures of the second leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens Series played at South Korea.
The third game of the day one saw, third place finishers from the first leg, Hong Kong women take on Plate winners — fifth place — Sri Lankan women in their opening fixture.
The Hong Kong women received the kick off and were the clear-cut favourites from the onset. Sri Lanka was defeated not only by their physicality but by their superiors skill set.
It took Hong Kong just 2 minutes to open the scoring, through Nat Olson-Thorne. The big ball playing forward was the first to react following a soft penalty by referee Phoenix Xu from China, dotting down beside the post for the opener. The try went unconverted as the score remained at 5-nil.
The Hong Kong women’s were clinical with every single restart following each try and their next two tries — from Colleen Tjosvold and Melody Li — came about following pinpoint accurate restarts.
Neither try was converted in the first half as their kicking at goal, however, seemed poor from the high standards the Hong Kong women set.
Half Time: Hong Kong 15 lead Sri Lanka 00
Hong Kong began from where they left off, with all intentions displaying they were here to play and not here to stumble, in similar fashion to the first leg.
Just thirty-seconds into the second half, Poon Pak Yan caught the Sri Lankans out on the edge, as the nippy winger, made a dazzling break, down the near touchline to score, resuming proceedings for the mighty Hong Kong women. Poon Pak Yan herself added the extras, converting a try for the first time in the game. 22-00
Hong Kong added to the Sri Lanka women’s misery as the Sri Lankan women looked to be at sixes and sevens in both attack and defence, not knowing when and what to do.
Melody Li, Kwong Sau Yan and youngster Jessica Ho added three further tries prior to the end of processing as a Sri Lankan women outfit, was outplayed, outclassed and beaten handsomely in their first outing of the second leg of the Asia Rugby Sevens series played in South Korea.
Full Time: Hong Kong 41 beat Sri Lanka 00
Score Breakdown
Hong Kong – Nat Olson-Thorne 1T, Colleen Tjosvold 1T, Melody Li 2T, Poon Pak Yan 1T 3C, Kwong Sau Yan 1T, Jessica Ho 1T
