Lankans at the Thai Sevens
View(s):The largest ever Asian Sevens Series will be played on September 21 and 22in Thailand. There will be16 teams participating in the men’s series while 12 teams will play in the first leg of the women’s games.
Japan is leading the HSBC after their 14-10 victory over defending champions Hong Kong in Malaysia in the first of the 2013 Asian Sevens Series. South Korea and Sri Lanka are the third and fourth ranked teams respectively. As the top four these teams will take the first places in each pool.
Sri Lanka will be playing in Pool B in the men’s with Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Sri Lankan women are in Pool X and have a tough draw with fourth ranked Hong Kong and Thailand.
Sri Lanka on its current performance has the best chance to head the group and play in the quarter-finals. Leading the group is important as this would give them another go at the semi-finals, to play against a team from Pool D which comprises of Hong Kong, Thailand, China and Laos.
Nilfer Ibrahim, the Sri Lankan Sevens Coach was confident that Sri Lanka will do well and reach the semi-final and he also stated that a final is not far off. He said that the players are raring to go and are aware of what they can do in the Asian Series. Injuries have been a problem and they will miss Vishvamithra Jayasinghe, who is a great finisher and has not fully recovered from injury.
The veteran coach opined that with five replacements allowed Sri Lanka should register and take on tour 15 players as done by most other teams. Injuries are bound to occur in the much faster and demanding Sevens game and having numbers in hand will be useful on the way in reaching a Cup final. -VP
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