Initial Rugby pool for Rio
Sri Lanka have put up a strong initial rugby pool of 20 players for the upcoming Rio Olympics. Sri Lanka are placed in pool ‘B’, along with Canada, Germany and Uruguay. They will face a tough competition in their pool games, especially from Canada. Matt Turner has been assigned as the head coach of Sri Lanka rugby sevens team to Monaco. The players are put through their paces under the close scrutiny of Turner. The men’s Olympic sevens qualifier will be worked out in Monaco on June 18th and 19th.The women’s seven qualifications will be worked out in Dublin, Ireland on June 25th and 26th. Both events will book the berth for Rio Rugby sevens in Brazil.
Seven players each from league champions Kandy SC and runners-up Havelock SC are included into the rugby pool — the players are: Roshan Weeraratne, Fazil Marija, Soyuru Anthony, Srinath Sooriyabandara, Richard Darmapala, Danushka Dayan, Vishvamithra Jayasinghe ( All from Kandy SC), Sudarshana Muthutantri, Danushka Ranjan, Hirantha Perera, Sandun Herath, Rehan Thyagaraja, Nishon Perera, Kevin Dixon ( All from Havelock SC), Jason Dissanayake, Lochana Hettiarachchi, Kavindu Perera, Kanchana Ramanayake (All from CR and FC), Omalka Guneratne (Navy SC) and Reeza Raffaideen (Police SC)
Monaco 7′s – Men’s teams:
Pool A: Samoa, Zimbabwe, Tonga, Ireland
Pool B: Canada, Germany, Uruguay,
Sri Lanka
Pool C: Russia, Chile, Morocco, Tunisia
Pool D: Hong Kong, Spain, Mexico, South Korea
Dublin 7′s – Women’s teams:
Pool A: Seed 1*, Samoa, Zimbabwe, Madagascar
Pool B: Seed 2*, Mexico, Venezuela, Tunisia
Pool C: Seed 3*, China, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago
Pool D: Hong Kong, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Cook Islands
Note : Seeds 1-3 (Russia, Spain and Ireland) will be confirmed after the final round of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Clermont-Ferrand on May 28-29.