| Sports |
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| Sevens
heaven ends nine-year drought The rugby crazy city of Kandy was in tears of joy when the small island recorded victory after nine years. The last time they tasted victory was in 1994 at the Fiji sevens way when the present coach of the Sri Lanka national side Chandrishan Perera led the team to victory over Uruguay by 21-14. When the initial side of 27 players were announced only 14 turned out for practices. This left the selectors with no choice but to select from available resources. Several so called star players stayed away from training due to reasons best known to them. The star winger from Kandy SC Radhika Hettiarachchi was selected as the skipper of the side. Though the side was together only for two days coach Shan Perera and his deputy Hisham Abdeen gave the young lads the required tips which they had learnt from the sevens circuit for many years. All these delays was due to the last moment idea of whether to select foreigners or not for this sevens tournament. According to IRB (International Rugby Board) rules if a player continuously resides in a country for a period of three years only, he can be considered for selection. The idea behind fielding foreign players was to strengthen our national team for the much-looked forward Rugby Asiad which will be held in Sri Lanka after 16 years. It is very sad to note that we are already late for the bus, by now we should have identified the players to play in the 2006 Asiad. The Lankan side opened the Singer Sri Lankan sevens with a tough game against the Australian side from Brisbane who beat the home side by 19-7. The second game was a closely contested against Chinese Taipei which the home side lost 22-28. The Lankans could have pulled it off if not for Sithara Fernando's clearance kick which fell in to the hands of a Taipei player who dashed his way to plant a try which sealed victory for them. The young combination hit the peak in the evening when they outclassed the Denmark side by 31-5 to book a berth in the Plate Semi finals against the bigger made German side. Though the Germans were favourites they could not match the Speed of the Lankan's who edged them out 27-19 after being led 19-7 at the breather. The final was one sided affair with the home side running out winners 33-5 to win the Plate championship after four unsuccessful attempts at the Singer Sri Lankan sevens. In the inaugural year in 1999 the Malaysian side edged out the local side 27-26 in the plate final. One year later Thailand beat the Lankans 35-26 in the Bowl final. The following year in 2001 Sri Lanka qualified for the Cup segment where the Korean's were edged out 24-14 after the locals beat them in the group match. Last year again we were eliminated in the Cup semi finals by Kenya by a huge margin of 33-0. Amjad Buksh, Radhika Hettiarachchi, Pradeep Liyanage, Sumedha Jayasinghe and school boy Prasad Chathuranga were outstanding. Infact Amjad was the second best in the most valuable players award. Chaturanga had a superb tournament. He foxed his opposing players with his dummies and he showed good speed which is very essential for sevens rugby. The rest of the Sri Lankan side were Sithara Fernando, Nilufer Ibrahim, Chammika Thusara, Dinesh Kumara, Danushka Pushpakumara and Sumedha Jayasinghe. Sri Lanka showed a lot of promise in the shorter version of the game when they stamped their class way back in 1984. Rugby legend Hisham Abdeen led the national team at the Hong Kong sevens when they beat Thailand 16-10 in the Bowl final. The side comprised some leading players such as present national coach Chandrishan Perera, C. P. Abeygoonawardena, Len De Silva, Nalin De Silva ( SLRFU Secretary), Chula Dharmadasa, Rohantha Peiris and Saman Jayasinghe with Geoff Ratnam as the coach of the side. Though the smaller made Lankans played well in patches it took the small island another 10 years to stamp their class. In 1994 the present national coach Chandrishan Perera led the Sri Lankan side to win in the Bowls segment. The local team had some tough opponents in the group matches where they went down to Fiji, Japan and Cook Island. Special mention must be made about the Fiji game, which they lost 0-35. Fiji had some top players including their sevens king Sereve. The Fijians notched up half century scores against top sides in that tournament. The Sri Lankan team had lot of support from the Fiji crowd where more than 10 players representing the clubs here. In the Bowl semi final they outclassed New Caledonia 42-5 and went on to beat the much stronger Uruguay side 21-14 in the final. The side comprised players such as Nazeem Mohamed, Graham Raux, Sudath Sampath, Hilmy Saheed (Snr), Nishantha Chanaka, Asoka Jayasena, Bimal Perera and Azad Junkeer with ever green Tony Amith as the coach of the national team. Speaking to The Sunday Times Chandrishan praised the young lads who proved beyond expectations and played well under pressure compared to the bigger made opponents. Their skill, pace and team effort was the key to success . Chandrishan praised skipper Radhika Hettiarachchi for his excellent leadership qualities which made his job easier. With players having the mental capacity to take the pressure is very important. Chandrishan further said that he was very upset when Nilufer Ibrahim got injured but Dilip Selvem who replaced him played the tournament of his life with his hard and low tackling which stopped sveral threatening moves. Shan also thanked all the club coaches who have done a grand job in moulding the players. He had a high praise for Laga of the Kandy SC, Tony Amith of CR & FC and Raux of CH & FC. With the Kings Cup coming in November and the Dubai sevens in December the national selectors should not forget the excellent performances put up by these youngsters. |
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