Lankans bid for Asian5Nations
View(s):Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) is negotiating with Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) in a bid to host the HSBC Asian5Nations Division I tournament to be played during late March or early April according to information. The HSBC A5N Division I tournament will feature Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei and Thailand besides Sri Lanka who are vying to host the event.
Sri Lanka lost to Phillipines in the final in Manila last year.
According to Lasitha Gunaratne, the vice president of SLRFU, who is also a committee member of ARFU, Thailand and Kazakhstan too have made bids to host the event. “The cost is a negative factor as hotels maintain the minimum rate guideline imposed by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board. This makes our hotel room rates higher compared to some Asian countries. But the hotels can give a better price considering the fact that the participants do not need a full buffet. An athletes’ meal can be provided at a lesser cost instead.Optimistically to our effort, this offer has been accepted by certain hotels that are keen of promoting sports tourism,” Gunaratne said.
Gunaratne further said that action is being taken by the higher sports authorities to seek governmental approval to relax the rates for housing all sports events hosted in Sri Lanka. The SLRFU it is said to be highly relying on a favourable response from the government which they say will be a big boost to host the event in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile Navy Sports Club flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa was appointed captain of the Sri Lanka 15s rugby team on Friday, few days after selecting a national pool of 58 players. The secretary of the SLRFU, Rizvie Illyas confirming Rajapaksa’s appointment said that the selection of players and the skipper is the sole responsibility of national selectors and the Sports Ministry.
“From my understanding the selectors wished to have continuity in appointing a captain considering that (Yoshitha) Rajapaksa led the 15s team last year. At the tournament played in Philippines we ended runners-up despite fielding a depleted and young side. The leadership qualities displayed then and performances at the domestic season was a factor that the selectors considered in deciding on the captaincy and also the appointment of Fazil Marija of Kandy Sports Club as the 7s captain as well as the 15s deputy,” Illyas said.
The national rugby pool is expected to meet on January 26 and commence training with South African Ravin du Plessis as the head coach and Ben Gollings as the High Performance and Back Division Coach. – VP
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