Keeping the Rio dream alive
Sudharshan Muthuthantri (Capt)
The Selection committee of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union has selected the best 12 member squad that will be touring to Monaco, France for the much important Rio 2016 Olympic qualifier. The Selection committee has decided to go ahead with experience for the series. Sudarshana Muthutantri, the tireless back row player, will captain the Sri Lanka national team on their way to gain a possible spot at the Rio Olympics.
At the beginning, a 19-man training squad was declared and the numbers were pruned down to a 16 players last week. On June 8th, the committee released the final 12-member touring squad.
There are several good players, who are outstanding in sevens game, have missed out the selections due to injuries. The skipper of Havelocks Sports Club Sandun Herath, is sidelined due to injury. The other player who will not be part of the touring squad is Vishvamithra Jayasinghe, the ace Kandy Sports Club wing three quarter. The new faces in the Sri Lanka national team Nishon Perera and Kevin Dixon of Havelocks Sports Club will be sitting out this tournament.
Fazil Marija
At the Rio 2016 Olympics, the Sevens rugby will be making the debut for the first time in history. Hence Sri Lanka and 15 other countries have the ultimate chance to earn themselves a berth at the Olympics. The qualifier is scheduled to be played on the June 18th and 19th at Monaco’s Stade Louise II stadium. Presently from Asia, Japan has gained qualification. The two day series will definitely see the 16 countries fighting it out for a single qualification spot.
The Sri Lanka National team is grouped in ‘B’ along with Canada, Germany and Uruguay. In the group, If Sri Lanka need to get qualified, they have to come top against Germany and Uruguay. Sri Lanka team will have the upper hand against these two nations, with the Sevens experience they have. Their stiffest opponent will be Canada, who regularly participates in Sevens rugby series and and have clashed with Sri Lanka on many occasions. The winner of the group stage will progress to the knock outs with plans of keeping their Olympic dream alive.
The 12 member squad of Sri Lanka, consists the experienced Fazil Marija of Kandy Sports Club. He will don the national jersey after a slipped disc injury. Marija, is the playmaker who can turn around the things for the national 
teams success at Monaco. He missed almost half of the club rugby, last season and Asian 5 nations championship and he returns back to deliver his best. The other two experienced members in the Sevens team, the skipper Muthutantri and his club team mate Danushka Ranjan, alongside Marija would like to play a key role in the team.
Also Kandy Sports Clubs’, Richard Dharmapala and Srinath Sooriyabandara, players with good Sevens rugby sense returns to the Sri Lanka Sevens team.Their team mates Roshan Weeraratne and Suhiru Anthony retains their spot in the team.The three new faces in the Sri Lanka Sevens team are CR and FC’s wing Kavindu Perera, Rochana Hettiarachchi and Kandy Sports Club’s Danush Dayan. Sri Lanka’s new Sevens coach is Mathew‘Matt’ Turner. Turner born in Cape town, South Africa is a rugby union player.
He represented team Bristol in the English Premiership and presently plays for Western Province, South Africa. He
Kavindu Perera
represented the England Sevens team on the Sevens world series from years 2008-2013. His team mate was Ben Gollings, was the onet ime Sevens coach of Sri Lanka.With lot of Sevens rugby behind him he quipped.” Sri Lanka have a chance for the qualification spot. If we beat Germany and Uruguay and give a close run to Canada the chances are high. I know several Sri Lankan players in the team, as I have played against them in the Sevens series. The team looks good and expect them to deliver the best”.
Meanwhile the skipper Muthutantri stated. “The team is combined with experience and youth. We can give a close run to all three teams in our group.The ultimate objective is to gain the qualification spot”. The Sri Lanka Sevens team to Monaco. The team will leave the country on June 14th. Sudarshana Muthutantri (Skipper, Havelock SC), Danushka Ranjan ( Havelock SC), Fazil Marija(Kandy SC), Roshan Weeraratne (Kandy SC), Srinath Sooriyabandara (Kandy SC), Danush Dayan ( Kandy SC), Richard Dharmapala (Kandy SC), Suhiru Anthony (Kandy SC), Kanchana Ramanayake (CR and FC), Kavindu Perera (CR and FC), Rochana Hettiarachchi ( CR and FC) and Jason Dissanayake (CR and FC)
