SriLankan flying high

By Aubrey Kuruppu

An exciting display of sevens rugby by the Sri Lankans enabled them to enter the quarter final and meet Thailand for a place in the semi final on the final day of the eighth Singer SriLankan Airlines Rugby Sevens at Nittawela.

A Sri Lankan player whisks past the Pakistan defence for another frey - Pic by Ranjith Perera

Sri Lanka just exploded off the blocks and scored through Jayasinghe (2) (before he was injured) Marija, Sheriff, Saliya Kumara and Vithanage. Buksh and Saliya added the extra points on five occasions.

Sri Lanka was up against a stronger side than Pakistan and they raised their game to make the gulf side look a distant second best. Buksh, though not scoring a try, showed why he’s so highly regarded as a sevens player.

Hong Kong gave as good as they got initially, but once the Koreans fond their bearings, it was one way street. Chinese Taipei turned on the style with some unorthodox, yet delightful passes as they beat a rugged Kazakhstan side.

Two time winners of the cup, Isipatana and St. Anthony’s will contest the schools cup final after defeating St. Peter’s and Zahira respectively. The Antonians had an easy passage and matters were compounded for the Zahirians as a result of some of their players going solo and coming to grief.

Isipatana played a tactically brilliant game to starve the Peterites of possession, especially in the first half. That done, the second half posed no problems to the green-shirted lads who took a good bet to defeat last year’s champs.