U-20 Rugby: Sri Lanka in Cup semis of Asian Youth 7s

The gallant Sri Lanka Under-20 7s Rugby team, led by Kevin Dixon, made a formidable impression at the Johor Sevens in Malaysia, in the first leg of the Asian Under-20 Sevens Series with two impressive wins and a close loss on Saturday (30). 

In the matches worked out on the first day, the Sri Lankan team competing in Group 'B', overcame Philippines 22-5 and Thailand 31-5 with clinical performances. 

But in their final match of the day, they succumbed to tournament favourites Japan 14-19 in a close game. 

On Sunday (31) Sri Lanka meet United Arab Emirates (UAE) to end their final group game. 

By judging from the performance so far, Sri Lanka who are placed second in their group have the edge over their counterparts. 

UAE so far has defeated Thailand 10-5 in a close game and beat Philippines 21-5. 

But they were crushed by the Japanese 38-0. 

If Sri Lanka overcome the UAE resistance on Sunday, they will cruise to a semi-final berth and likely to face another tough contender South Korea. 

Depending on their performance from there, Sri Lanka will likely meet Malaysia for the Plate Championship final if they lose or will set up a final with Japan in the Cup final if they win. 

The group 'A' table leaders Japan apart from beating Sri Lanka, smashed Philippines 40-0 and UAE 38-0. 

In the Group 'A' matches so far, South Korea leads the table with beating Hong Kong (19-10), Chinese Taipei (19-14) and Singapore (33-5). 

But the Koreans came for a shocker when they were trounced by the hosts, Malaysia 26-12. 

The secondly placed Malaysians are unbeaten in their three outings. 

Apart from victory against Korea, they also came on top against Chinese Taipei (19-14) and Hong Kong (26-17). 

In the tournament so far the highest try scorer is Sri Lankan Reeza Raffaideen.

He has ended up with five tries while Kotetsu Nishikawa from Japan take the credit for most number of successful conversions - 9.