Lankans can take a cue from surprise ridden Korea
View(s):Japan, a core team in the Hong Kong Sevens 2014/15 failed to reach the final of the first leg of Asian 7s Series held in Hong Kong last weekend. The shock result of the Asian Sevens series first round was that Japan the sole Asian team in the Hong Kong Sevens 2014/15 was stunned by Korea and lost 21-28 in the semi-final. The shock was to Japan but the surprise was to Sri Lanka, who had another contender to fight with to keep the third place intact.
Sri Lanka from last year to this year has virtually maintained the status despite going down to fourth place. They can be happy that they are the fourth team joining the three teams of top tier that will play in the XV-a-side game.
In the final Hong Kong made the most to sweep aside surprise finalists Korea 40-0 at the first ARFU Asian Sevens Series event of the season. Japan sprung back to beat Sri Lanka 42-12 for third place. They will have to look for a better outcome when the second round takes place Kuala Lumpur on September 6 and 7 and the third round in China later on. The advent of Korea meant that Sri Lanka who were third last year dropping a place to fourth. This place was previously occupied by Korea.
Sri Lanka who have been doing well in the Seven’s series and performed to expectations in the league stage. The Tuskers beat Malaysia convincingly in the quarter-final. The challenge they faced was that of Hong Kong who have continued to be their nemesis. Korea who has been two-times Asian Games gold medalists proved to be more than a dark horse and will be a strong contender for a medal in the Asian Games. The Asian Sevens Series 2014 serves as a regional qualifier for HSBC Sevens World Series, offering a chance to compete at the HSBC/Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sevens in 2015.
The results show that Sri Lanka has to work harder in the coming weeks and the Sevens series to retain the third place they occupied last year. Despite that Korea did surprise all. The lesson to Sri Lanka is that they too can do the same feat and become a major force in the Sevens circuit in Asia.
With the Sevens also acting as a qualifier for the Hong Kong Sevens in 2015 and is expected to continue and the time is ripe to get on the drawing board as it appears that Sri Lanka can be a force in Asia.
The performance in all matches up until the Plate final was good and comforting. It is now to dream about being among the best two in Asia. That is something that cannot be achieved by dreaming alone. It requires commitment hard work and a strategy.
This may mean that Sri Lanka needs to work on a Sevens specific pool to face the future. That leads to a need to have more Sevens tournaments as well as playing more against other equals in the rugby circuit. This will not be easy as it requires changes to a 15-a-side national structure as well as the funding that will be required.
Sevens is about agility, fitness and speed. The extra space creates a much quicker and open game than the 15s and the tactics are different. It is by practicing and playing Sevens that the team will be able to play and challenge the better known teams. In an environment where every 15s player thinks that he can play Sevens while coaches and administrators will want the faster, fitter and speedy players to don the 15s jersey.
The plans need to filter down to the junior games as one more often than not see a 15-a-side structured game with the difference of only Sevens players are on the field. The demands of fit, quick-speed and agility make the game more in the line of a younger player. That is where the opportunity lies to train young school-leaving mobile athletes to play in a Sevens game. The window opens to have a Under-21 or Under-23 Sevens rugby as part of the plan. You could play this possibly every two weeks with around four teams playing 90 minutes before kickoff time. That will also give people to be Sevens stars among a club.
The women’s rugby team won the Plate championship beating Thailand convincingly. Thailand was a team that beat Sri Lanka in the pool stage but lost in the Plate final. In this case too Sri Lanka seems to have the resources to do better. What is mostly needed is to structure so that these ladies will have more matches and more tournaments. While we do reasonably well in tournaments the lack of tournaments and opportunities’ to play is a direction that needs pursuit to develop women’s rugby
Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, Coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB