Rugby: South Korea break Lankan hearts - Hong Kong upset Japan for Asian Games gold

Sri Lanka faced an unexpected setback 14-36 as South Korea went on to win the Rugby Sevens Bronze medal of the 18th Asian Games 2018 at the GBK Rugby Field in Indonesia on Saturday (1).

After an impressive display against Japan in the semi-final, where Sri Lanka suffered a narrow 10-12 defeat, hopes were high of a possible Bronze medal finish. 

However South Korea were up in arms from the first whistle and finished off with a tally of six tries and three conversions after leading 19-0 at halftime. 

Sri Lanka struck in the second half in quick sessions soon after the second half kicked off with two converted tries off Tarinda Ratwatte and Jason Dissanayake, with Ratwatte making both conversions. 

But South Korea maintained their momentum by scoring regularly to add more tries and spoil Sri Lanka's only remaining chance of a medal. 

For South Korea Jeongmin Kim, Yongheung Chang, Jeongmin Jang, Hyunsoo Kim, Jinhyeok Kim and Injo Hwang scored a try each, while Namuk Kim and Jaebok Lee took the conversions. 

Sri Lanka made six replacements through the game, hoping to change its fortune, but nothing worked out the Tuskers' way. 

Eventually Hong Kong went on to win the Gold medal, beating Japan, who settled in for the Silver medal. 

The match faced an unexpectedly turnover as Hong Kong went on to secure the win by 14-0 and with a tally of two converted tries. 

Earlier on in the semi-finals Japan edged out Sri Lanka 12-10 while Hong Kong beat South Korea 19-7. 

The Tuskers went out in full force for the first time with star player Danushka Ranjan making his first appearance in the competition in the crucial game against Japan. 

Sri Lanka made a solid start by opening scoring in the first minute through Kavindu Perera to take the lead 5-0, after Srinath Sooriyabandara failed to put over a difficult kick. 

Japan playing rather cautiously capitalised, but were made to fight hard unlike their previous outings before Kosuke Hashino braced a try to level scores 5-5 in the third minute. 

After a three-minute faceoff between the two sides, skipper Sudarshana Muthuthanthri made a breakthrough as he went on to score a brilliant try, which put Sooriyabandara in another challenge that failed. 

Muthuthanthri was replaced by Jason Dissanayake soon afterwards. 

Sri Lanka led 10-5 for a considerable time just before Japan made a surprising move where Katsuyuki Sakai made the finishing touch.

Sakai made the conversion to put Japan on the lead 12-10 just before halftime. 

Sri Lanka made three quick changes after the first minute of the second half as Reeza Raffaideen, Tharinda Ratwatte and Rehan Silva replaced Kavindu Perera, Sudam Sooryarachchi and Gayan Weeraratne respectively as reinforcement, but still failed to make a break through. 

In the fourth minute Ranjan was taken off the field and replaced by Buddhima Piyarathe but both teams failed to overcome each other as the game ended with the scores of first half. 

On Friday (31), in the Gold medal quarter-final stage Sri Lanka beat China 17-12 to book their berth in the semi-final after two wins and a loss from Group 'C'. 

Sri Lanka thrashed United Arab Emirates (68-0) before falling short narrowly against South Korea (26-31) on Thursday and went on to beat Afghanistan (36-0) on Friday morning to finish second in the group. 

Japan won the Gold medal in the Women's segment beating China 7-5 in a close final. ]

While China claimed the Silver medal, Kazakhstan beat Thailand 29-7 to clinch the Bronze medal.