Although it was mixed feelings for Sri Lankan rugby fans, the Sri Lankan Tuskers returned home with their heads held high after retaining the fourth place in the Malaysia rugby sevens – the second and the penultimate leg of the ARFU Asian Sevens Series, held in Petaling Jaya Stadium, Kuala Lumpur.
Considering the title earned by Sri Lanka last year as the third best sevens rugby team in Asia according to the ranking, it’s natural for one to assume that any place below the third is a step back. But in reality, apart from Japan and Hong Kong – the Asian sevens rugby giants, South Korea has been another Goliath in sleeping, and to overcome the Korean challenge this year will be a herculean task for the Tuskers.
In the third place match between Sri Lanka and South Korea, played last weekend, the physical mismatch between the forwards of both teams was quite apparent.
Right throughout in sevens rugby history, Sri Lankan forwards have been subjected to being manhandled by their bigger and stronger counterparts, and in general, looking into fixing this gap will be Sri Lanka’s next big challenge in sevens rugby.
The Waqavulagi factor
The talking point for Sri Lankan rugby fans in the Malaysia leg was the inclusion of the Fiji-born Emori Waqavulagi – the first foreigner to don the Sri Lanka national sevens rugby jersey.
Looking at how Sri Lanka performed against the strong Hong Kong team, it seemed that the presence of Waqavulagi in the team made an impact to intensify the physical and psychological attitude of the entire Sri Lankan outfit.
With his mesmerizing footwork, daring runs and magical ball handling, the six-footer certainly seemed to have made a great impression on the minds of Sri Lankan rugby fans, and raised some new hopes for Sri Lanka sevens rugby.
Sri Lanka vs Kazakhstan (Pool B)
Sri Lanka did not have much difficulty when they beat Kazakhstan 38 (6T,4C) – 17 (3T,1C) in their opening match in Pool B. Waqavulagi opened the score sheet for Sri Lanka, followed by Srinath Sooriyabandara with two more tries.
At halftime the score read 21-7, and Kazakhstan entered into the game positively at this point. The strongly built Kazakhs looked threatening for a brief period, but skipper Fazil Marija, Danushka Ranjan and Anuradha Wilwara put the issue to rest.
Ildar Abdrazakov, Ivan Olkhovskiy and Baurzhan Nukebayev scored tries for Kazakhstan.
Sri Lanka vs China (Pool B)
In the third Pool B match, China started the proceedings with two back-to-back tries and stunned the favorites Sri Lanka. Marija joined Waqavulagi to reduce the points gap with a 90 meter try for Sri Lanka but China hit back soon with another brilliant try.
Sri Lanka took the control of the game from this point onwards with two tries from Waqavulagi and ended the first half 21-17.
After the resumption, Shehan Pathirana scored a try in the mid second half while speedster Ma Chong completed a hatrick of tries for China to bring the score up to 26-22.
Sooriyabandara joined the try scorers in the last move of the match to read the final score, 33-22 in favor of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka vs Malaysia (Cup Quarterfinal)
Despite having fielded four Fijians, the host had to surrender to Sri Lanka meekly where the winners recorded a runaway 28-7 victory.
Waqavulagi, Gayan Weeraratna, Anuradha Wilwara and Sudarshaan Muthuthanthri scored tries for Sri Lanka. Muhammad Siddiq helped register the only try for Malaysia.
Sri Lanka vs Hong Kong (Cup Semifinal)
In one of the most exciting sevens semifinal clashes witnessed by the Sri Lankan rugby fans in some time, the Tuskers went down gallantly to the Asian powerhouse, Hong Kong, but did not fail to make a strong statement in Asian sevens rugby.
Hong Kong, the winner of the first leg, had to fight tooth and nail for every single forward move against the stubborn Sri Lankan defense. But the deadlock was broken seconds before the halftime when Rowan Varty – the third leading try scorer in the leg, scored an unconverted try – thanks be to a series of penalties Hong Kong received.
In the mid second half Sri Lankan winger Waqavulagi was issued a yellow card for a high tackle, which opened a gap for Hong Kong to consolidate the score with another unconverted try by Max Woodward.
Trailing 10-00, the six-man Sri Lankan team not only defended well but also secured possession to send their speed merchant Wilwara to score by the left post to make the fulltime score 10-7.
Sri Lanka vs South Korea (Third place match)
Although Sri Lanka expected much in this match, the strongly built South Koreans dominated the proceeding to win the third place of the tournament quite convincingly. After a hard-fought semifinal, Sri Lanka played sans their captain Marija and clearly looked exhausted.
For the winners Sung Soo Kim, Yeonsik Jeong, Seong Min Jang and Taeil Yoon scored tries while for Sri Lanka Dinusha Chuthuranga and Wilwara scored the consolation tries.
