 Once again the Sri Lanka rugby team is geared up to contest at the Asian Five Nations Division One tournament scheduled for kick-off on April 14 in Singapore.
Sri Lanka is scheduled to play Chinese Taipei in the semi final game followed by host Singaporeans locking horns with with Malaysia in the other semi final.
Presently the Sri Lankan players are hard at training under South African and Kandy coach Johan Taylor.
Taylor a key figure of the successful Kandy SC team has already guided the Nittawela Club to triple crowns for three consecutive years. He has already arrived in the island for a fourth year.
Pradeep Liyanage |
This will be the third time that Sri Lanka is taking part in the division one tournament. Last year Sri Lanka lost to Chinese Taipei (36-24) in the semis and defeated Thailand (51-17) in third place play off game.
According to the current Asian ranking Sri Lanka is in seventh place.
Sri Lanka captain Pradeep Liyanage speaking to the Sunday Times said he’s happy with the “players commitment and very pleased at the way the boys have trained”.Liyanage said the team has practiced hard two sessions a day and the players are fit and in a better condition. “This time the side is very balanced with a good set of three quarters and mobile forwards”.
“With coach Johan Taylor I am sure he will produce unexpected performances. He has done a tremendous job with just one week of training”.
Kandy players have a good understanding with Taylor’s training methods because he was our coach for the last three years, but it was too difficult for other players to come up to that standard within a short period of training according to Liyanage He said that as the tournament progresses to coincide with the off-season the preparation challenge was nearly double.
Sri Lanka squad
Props: Henry Terrence (CR and FC), Kishore Jehan (Kandy SC) and Eranga Swarnatilleke (Kandy SC).
Hookers: Rajiv Perera (Havelocks) and Achala Perera (Kandy SC).
Second rows: Ashean Karthelis (CR and FC), Ishan Noor (CR and FC), Dinesh Sanjeewa (CH and FC) and Senaka Bandara (Kandy SC)
Flankers : Dilip Selvam (Kandy SC), Sean Wijesinghe (Kandy SC) and Yoshitha Rajapaksa (Navy).
NO -8s: Sajith Saranga (Kandy SC) and Dushanth Lewke (CR and FC),
Scrum Halves: Roshan Weeraratne (Kandy SC) and Zulki Hamid (CR and FC).
Fly Halves:Fazil Marija ( Kandy), Ashan de Costa (CR and FC) and Samantha Lakshan (Navy).
Centres:Pradeep Liyanage (Kandy SC, captain) and Gayan Weeraratne (Kandy SC).
Wingers: Vishvamithra Jayasinghe (CR and FC) and Nuwan Hettiarachchi (Navy)
Full back: Saliya Kumara. |
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