Sri Lankan Rugby outfit led by Yoshitha Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka Navy will kick off the proceedings of the HSBC Asian Five nations Tournament Division I in Manila Philippines with the game against Taipei today. The national players who were under the watcful eyes of former England player Phil Greening for more than 1 month were drilled well with taking lot of pain to mould the inexperienced three quarters when the Kandy three’s Fazil Marija, Pradeep Liyanage and Gayan Weeraratne who kept away from practices.
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| Sri Lanka are expected to face tough games in Division I as they did in the Top 5 last year. |
Rizly Ilyas speaking to the Sunday Times said that with the limited number of players attending practices and with the arrival of the coach we got the best out of the time available. Though the team was inexperienced in International exposure we are very happy with the coach and how all worked out when most of the Kandy players pulled out from attending practices. Further we have all th confidents in the leadership of Yoshitha who led the outfit in Malaysian Sevens Bowl championship.
Rizly ended by saying that we hope to end in the first two in division I and hopefully we will gain the necessary promotion next year and also we are thankful to the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) for arranging a warm up game against Sri Lanka before the initial game.
Sri Lanka national rugby players lost all three matches last year at the HSBC Asian Five Nations Top 5. Sri Lanka was beaten by Japan, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan before ending the UAE game 13 a piece. Sri Lanka hosted three of the four games.
Referee- Warren Needham (Hong Kong)
After today’s Sri Lankan game Singapore will meet the hosts Philippine which will see the Local boy Dharmala Nimal taking charge of the game. Former Royalist Shamrath Fernando is the match official. At the time of going to press the final playing fifteen was not named.
18/4
Sri Lanka vs Singapore
Philippine vs Taipei
21/4
Sri Lanka vs Philippine
Singapore vs Taipei |
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