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by Dinesh Weerawansa

Sri Lanka finished fifth in the 2002 Rugby Asiad in Thailand when they beat Malaysia by 61 points to 18 in their play-off match played at the Army Stadium, Bangkok on Friday.

Sri Lanka, after taking only a narrow 25-18 lead at half time, cut loose and collected 36 more points in the second half to win convincingly at the end. The star of the Lankan win was skipper and full back Asanga Rodrigo. The former Royal and present CR & FC player Rodrigo was in fine form in scoring a hat-trick of tries to become the architect of the Lankan win, according to the reports reaching from the Thai capital. He was adjudged man of the match for his superb effort.

Sri Lanka collected their points from five goals, four tries and two penalties against a goal, a try and two penalties by the Malaysians. Reports added that the Lankans did not play well in the first half whereas the lads from Kuala Lumpur have gone all out.

But the Malaysians had lacked staying power after the lemons as the Lankans launched a fresh attack to run down six more tries in the second half. Sri Lanka has made maximum use of the poor Malaysian defence to run down as many as nine tries, of which five were converted.

Joining the Sri Lankan try feast with skipper Asanga Rodrigo (three) were prop Jeeva Galgamuwa and Shamly Nawaz, who scored two tries each. Yuganthara Karunaratne and winger Radhika Hettiarachchi, who crossed the Malaysian line once.

But the Lankans could not cover up shame in any way, despite beating Malaysia and finishing fifth in the 2002 Asiad. Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating record 0-72 loss at the hands of the hosts Thailand, which was also their sixth successive rugby union Test defeat. During their six defeats in a row, they had a worst ever 129-6 humiliation by Japan. A few years ago, Sri Lanka were almost in the No.3 position in Asia behind Japan and Korea. But now, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand are well ahead of Sri Lanka. With emerging forces like China and Arabian Gulf, or even minnows India, Sri Lanka could go further down in the years to come, unless no immediate action is taken.

Meanwhile, the Asian Rugby Football Union met at the Rama Gardens Hotel and among the important issues discussed was the future of the Second Division Championship. Some delegates to the meeting proposed the Second Division tournament which has surged in popularity to be given greater prominence. They suggested the winner and even the runner-up to be upgraded to either expand the First Division or one or two teams from the top flight to be demoted to the Second Division. Sri Lanka was represented by the SLRFU President, Cmdr, Harsha Mayadunne.

India which has completed all its matches and finished seventh in the Second Division is carrying too many injuries, hence the team bowed out of a friendly match against the Thai Under 19 team which was scheduled to be played at the Dhupatemee Stadium, Bangkok today. Some of the Thai players had suffered bad bruising in the match against Kazakhstan, including fly-half Nanthawat Wongwanichsilp who is a doubtful starter for today's final against the Arabian Gulf team.

Meanwhile, South Korea, which heads the points table in the league competition having scored 75 for and 27 against, in their two games against Taiwan whom they beat 35-10 and Hong Kong whom they defeated 40-17 are bidding strong to regain the ARFU Trophy, which they last won in 1992 in Japan. This year, by virtue of the Asian Games success, they will go out favourites to win the AFU title as well. The battle of the losers of the division, between Taiwan and Hong Kong will take at the Army Stadium this morning.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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